South East Water is facing renewed criticism after more than 1,000 customers across Kent and East Sussex experienced water shortages during the May bank holiday heatwave. The disruption, which began on Saturday and continued for three days, was triggered by a failure at a pumping station in Charing, located at the base of the North Downs in Kent. Some residents, including those in the village of Challock, remained without regular water supply and had to rely on bottled water distribution as of Monday.

The incident has intensified scrutiny of the utility provider, occurring just weeks after the resignation of former chief executive Dave Hinton, who stepped down amid criticism over previous supply issues. Earlier this month, Chris Train, South East Water’s former chairman, also resigned. These leadership changes have done little to assuage concerns among lawmakers about the company’s ability to maintain basic service standards.

Rosie Duffield, the Member of Parliament for Canterbury, expressed frustration over the ongoing problems, saying that despite recent management changes, there has been no visible improvement in service or leadership. Duffield called for increased investment, stronger management, and urgent intervention by both the water regulator Ofwat and the government to prevent such recurring failures.

Alistair Carmichael, chair of the House of Commons Environment Committee, echoed these concerns, describing the affected customers as “long-suffering.” He noted that the committee had previously highlighted South East Water’s lack of resilience, and this latest outage served as further evidence of structural issues within the company. Carmichael urged South East Water to focus on core service reliability, improve transparency with customers, and refrain from attributing failures solely to external factors.

The sustained disruption during a heatwave has drawn particular criticism, as access to water is a fundamental necessity. South East Water has been approached for comment on the incident.