Thousands of residents in west Kent remain without running water as South East Water continues efforts to repair a burst pipe that caused widespread disruption.
The incident, which occurred on Saturday, led to significant flooding and damaged critical equipment at a key water treatment facility.
The water outage has affected around 7,000 properties across Kings Hill, Wateringbury, Yalding, West Kingsdown, Borough Green, Hadlow, and Five Oak Green.
Despite the company restarting its water treatment works on Sunday night, most affected homes are unlikely to see their water supplies restored on Monday.
South East Water has been distributing bottled water to care homes and vulnerable customers registered under its Priority Services scheme.
Additional bottled water stations were set up at Asda in Kings Hill and West Kingsdown Library & Village Hall.
However, delays in delivery have frustrated residents. Many arrived at the Kings Hill Asda station on Monday morning, only to find that bottled water had not yet arrived, leading to long traffic queues.
Yalding resident Sarah Brooks, who has been without water since Saturday night, described the situation as a major challenge.
She noted that her household, including two children, has struggled without water for drinking, washing up, flushing toilets, or showering. Initially, when she reached the bottled water station, supplies were unavailable, which she described as a significant letdown.
David Fordham, another affected resident, confirmed that his household had collected some water on Sunday but said they would need more as the situation continued.
Philip Jones, incident manager at South East Water, apologised for the continued disruption, explaining that while the water treatment works are now operational, they are not yet running at full capacity. The company is using tankers to pump water directly into storage facilities to speed up recovery.
Government officials are monitoring the situation closely. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) stated that South East Water must take immediate action to assist residents and restore service as quickly as possible.
The government has pledged to strengthen consumer protections by increasing compensation for water supply issues and unlocking more than £104 billion in private sector investment for infrastructure improvements, including new reservoirs and pipeline upgrades.
For now, thousands in west Kent continue to endure water shortages, with no clear timeline for full restoration.
