Hundreds get water supply back after six days
South East WaterThe majority of properties in parts of west Kent that were without water for six days in a row have had their supply restored.
A power cut on Saturday shut down a water treatment works that supplies 5,000 properties in Sevenoaks, Hildenborough, Bidborough and Tonbridge.
Around 600 homes were still affected as of Thursday morning.
South East Water has since confirmed that most customers in Bidborough and Tonbridge have now had their supplies restored.
Incident manager Phil Jones said: "Our teams have been busy clearing the air trapped in our system.
"This has allowed the levels in our drinking water storage tanks to increase overnight, and we're continuing to remove any remaining air locks in the system today to restore supplies to all customers as quickly as possible."
Mr Jones also warned that as tap water returns, it may appear cloudy or slightly discoloured as a result of air in the water.
"To resolve discolouration, customers should run their kitchen tap for a few minutes until the water clears," he added.
All bottled water stations have now been closed.
South East Water also previously said it was looking into how compensation for affected customers will work.
In recent days, residents expressed their frustration and anger over the outages.
Imtiaz Mohammad and Sushant Bali, from Tonbridge, borrowed a trolley from a nearby supermarket to take home bottles from a water station.
"It's quite inconvenient, especially when you have a family of kids at home and you're not sure if the water quality coming from the taps is drinkable or not," Mr Bali said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Tonbridge MP Tom Tugendhat called the outage "unacceptable".
He said he intended to "keep the pressure on" water companies.
Follow BBC Kent on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected] or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.