Crisis-hit South East Water, which supplies many of the villages around Rye, is wasting more than 100 million litres of water per day, figures from the industry’s watchdog Ofwat reveal.
That’s the equivalent of 40 Olympic-sized swimming pools each day in Sussex and Kent. The figures have emerged after the private firm was under fire for a series of supply problems leaving tens of thousands of residents without supplies.
The water company’s performance was roundly condemned in a report by Kent County Council (KCC), with a number of councillors attacking both South East and the regulator.
Conservative KCC member Bill Barratt said, “The fact this new evidence proves South East Water is leaking water on a gigantic scale shows how shocking our water infrastructure and resilience actually is. I am dumbfounded that South East Water is getting away with wasting water in the region of 100 million litres a day, and yet have the gall to put the public’s water bills up. It’s absolutely shocking.”
Councillor Connie Nolan, joint leader of the Labour group at County Hall, said, “I’m sorry, but I am not surprised. The whole system is obviously failing and needs to be overhauled. I want to see the plan for the water company’s maintenance programme and hold them to account for it.”
Green Party member Rob Yates said, “It’s a lot worse than I would have imagined and just confirms what every person knows – that South East Water is not fit for purpose. It should be 100% taken out of private ownership – kick them out straightaway. If they sue, let them.”
Former Conservative Kent county councillor Tony Hills, who has raised concerns for decades about water issues, said that he blames the industry’s watchdog, Ofwat. “Would you blame a fox for being a fox? Water companies will try to get away with it if they can and they should be better regulated.”
Marc Sims, head of asset management at South East Water, said: “We share our customers’ frustrations at seeing drinking water lost to leaks and are working hard to reduce leakage across our network. We are prioritising fixing these leaks as quickly as we can and have brought in additional repair teams to assist. In the last year, we have found and fixed over 21,000 leaks on our network, and a further 6,000 customer-side leaks. This is around a 10% increase on the previous year.”
He said the company’s current business plan has more than 1,124km of pipeline earmarked for replacement between 2025 and 2030. “Our renewal programme aims to target the older and most vulnerable pipes across South East Water’s supply area which covers Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Surrey and Berkshire. The mains renewal programme can be impacted by several external factors, and can also be adjusted to accommodate other renewals if a particular water main is proven to be continually failing or shows signs of an increased failure rate and associated supply interruptions.”