Schools may close for a week as water dries up

Fury at fresh crisis

- BY GILES SHELDRICK Chief Reporter

SOME schools may stay shut for a week after a failure to plug hundreds of leaks left 45,000 households without water in parts of Kent and Sussex.

Parents raged at South East Water amid a fresh crisis that has seen supplies cut off for days. Customers are being given bottled water.

The supplier, run by a consortium of foreign infrastructure funds, is losing 100 million litres daily — enough to fill 35 Olympic swimming pools.

It has been ridiculed for stating it aims to halve the leaks, but by 2050.

Areas including Tunbridge Wells, Canterbury and Maidstone have been hit, with residents having to use bottled water for drinking, cooking and washing. But some were left high and dry as emergency supplies ran out.

The latest shambles follows disruptions last year, with a hosepipe ban then a lack of water before Christmas.