Sussex Weald MP Nursrat Ghani criticises South East Water

Nursrat Ghani, the Conservative MP for Sussex Weald, recently criticised South East Water after receiving reports of service failures across failures across Sussex Weald.

At the time she described the disruption as 'unacceptable.'

In a new statement submitted to the Argus, Ms Ghani said: "Yet again we are plagued with water issues, and I continue to receive complaints from exasperated residents who feel they are being left high and dry by South East Water.

"We were under the impression that the recent hosepipe ban would eliminate the disruption to supplies, but the problem appears to be much worse than we thought, as communications were recently issued by South Easter Water imposing water curfews in Crowborough and Heathfield."

Ms Ghani went on to say that she feared the Priority Service Register (that helps utility companies isolate households in need of extra support) was not up to date.

In her statement she said that assisted living residents and streets in Heathfield were not receiving water.

She went on to say: "I am also told that some households on the register are having multipacks of water being left in inaccessible locations."

Robert Anthony-Scorse, the Incident Manager for South East Water said: "We are asking customers across our supply areas to be extremally careful with their water use.

"A hosepipe ban is in place, but with the prolonged period of hot, dry weather demand for water is extremally high."

Mr Anthony-Scorse went on to say that on Tuesday, July 28, they supplied 625 million litres of water and that the average demand for water in July is 588 million litres.

He said: "This means some of our drinking water storage tanks have reached critically low levels. At the moment, we do not have any customers in the Sussex area without water due to high demand, however some may have lower than usual water pressure, especially at the peak periods in the morning and evening.

"On one evening last week in Crowborough, the boosted supply was stopped, affecting the high ground when demand was lower. This allowed the tanks to recover for the morning peak and to secure longer term water supply."

Addressing the Priority Service Register, Mr Antony-Scorse said: "Customers on our Priority Services Register should receive deliveries of bottled water according to need and we are sorry if that has not been the case.

"We will investigate any instances we are made aware of. In addition we will review where supplies are placed for customers and make any improvements needed."

Mr Anthony-Scorse said that South East Water are doing everything they can to keep customers in supply during this challenging period.