UK weather: Thousands with no water or low pressure after bursts

Thousands of properties in Kent and Sussex are without water or with low pressure after pipes burst due to snow and ice thawing rapidly overnight.

Southern Water said 20,000 customers were affected, while South East Water said about 15,000 had supply issues.

The water companies have apologised to customers and said they were setting up bottled water sites.

David Hinton, South East Water chief executive officer, said it was a "fast-moving and challenging situation".

The utility company, which supplies drinking water to 2.2m people in the South East, said outages were expected for up to 48 hours.

The water companies said affected areas included Tunbridge Wells, Crawley Down, Crowborough, Ardingly, Broadstairs, Manston, Margate and Ramsgate.

In a statement, Mr Hinton said: "We are very sorry to our customers who are without water but we are doing everything we can in this incredibly fast-moving and challenging situation.

"Although we planned for this, we cannot predict when and where pipes will burst and are reacting as quickly as possible."

Meanwhile, Southern Water told customers: "We know how inconvenient and distressing being without water can be, and we're working on getting the bottled water stations open as a priority."

Ben Booker, manager of the Ashdown Park Hotel and Country Club in East Sussex, said: "If this carries on, I will have to close my business again, like I did back in February when I was without water for five days."

One Tunbridge Wells resident, Hayley Stokes, said she felt "really let down" by South East Water.

"It's ridiculous. Our water has gone off 23 times this year," she said.

Ms Stokes, who has a seven-year-old child, said not being able to wash hands, go for a hot shower or flush the toilet posed a health risk.

Douglas Whitfield, South East Water's incident director, said burst water pipes had resulted in an immediate increase in demand for water.

"On a normal winter's day we extract, treat and pump an average of 520m litres of drinking water to customers," Mr Whitfield said.

"During the past 24 hours, this has increased by 100m litres to 620m.

"This has resulted in many of our drinking water storage tanks, which hold treated water before it is pumped to customers' taps, going empty or very low."

Southern Water said its supply issues were caused by a "significant burst" at its Rumfields reservoir.

It said it would be working through the night to fix the problem.

South East Water asked customers who did have water to only use it for essential purposes.

Mr Hinton said: "Take shorter showers, do not leave taps running unnecessarily and only run washing machines and dishwashers when you have a full load."

Douglas Whitfield apologised to the approximately 3,000 properties in the Tunbridge Wells area who had experienced an intermittent water supply for the last 4-5 days.

He said this year had presented an "extraordinary set of circumstances".

The combination of the summer heatwave, the hosepipe ban, extreme flooding and now freezing weather had made it one of the most challenging periods he had seen, he said.

Bottled water stations have been set up at Tesco on Woodgate Corner in Pembury, Tunbridge Wells, The Gearon Pavilion in Saint Hill Road, East Grinstead, and at Putlands Sports & Leisure Centre in Mascalls Court Road, Tonbridge.

Mr Whitfield said other bottled water stations were likely to open.

Carol Williams, from Tunbridge Wells, told BBC South East Today she has experienced water supply issues since the summer heatwave. She said the problem had gone beyond an "acceptable level".

She questioned whether South East Water had "a serious problem" with its infrastructure and called on the firm to "come up with some answers".

Giles Kirby, whose parents live in Tunbridge Wells, found it "frustrating" that there was "no real answer" as to when the water supply issues will be resolved.

"I just hope it doesn't ruin Christmas for people," he added.

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