South East Water bosses have been recalled to appear before MPs over a water outage before Christmas, as thousands of customers suffer following the latest supply failures.
Alistair Carmichael, chairman of the Parliamentary Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) committee, said he and his colleagues remained “deeply sceptical” about the water company’s version of events surrounding an outage affecting 24,000 properties in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, last month.
He said the committee would seek a further hearing with South East Water’s (SEW) chief executive, David Hinton, and chair, Chris Train, after the latter wrote to the MPs disputing the Drinking Water Inspectorate’s (DWI) evidence on the incident.
And he criticised the company’s announcement of a further independent review into the supply failure, which left thousands of customers without water for days after a “water quality issue” at the Pembury Water Treatment Works, questioning its independence and accusing the firm of “buying time”.
It comes as 25,000 properties remain affected by the latest outages across Kent and Sussex, which SEW has blamed on Storm Goretti causing burst pipes and power cuts.
Many residents are now into a fourth day without water with the newest outages starting during the night between Friday and Saturday last week.
Mr Carmichael said: “Members of the press and public would be forgiven for seeing Mr Train’s announcement of a further review of the Pembury failure as an attempt to buy themselves time, to hunker down until this storm blows over.
“They also assert that their review will be independent. It stretches the meaning of independent when their review is to be conducted by a member of its board, supporting by its staff.”
He also said: “My colleagues and I remain deeply sceptical about the company’s version of events to date, and its board’s track record of holding the company to account.
“We would be failing in our duty if we now allowed them without challenge to mark their own homework, let alone on a timescale that will add months to the process.”
He said the committee would seek a further evidence session with both the Drinking Water Inspectorate and Mr Hinton and Mr Train, and ahead of that would gather further evidence and allow the current outage affecting customers in Kent and Sussex to pass.
On Tuesday, water supplies to Loose in Maidstone; Blean near Canterbury; Headcorn; West Kingsdown; and parts of Tunbridge Wells, all in Kent, have been restored, SEW said.
After apologising again, it added that drinking water to 16,500 properties in East Grinstead, West Sussex, should be restored this afternoon.
Ofwat, the water services regulation authority, has voiced “concern” about the latest outages, and says it will “review all the evidence” before deciding whether SEW has met its legal obligations to customer care.
SEW’s incident manager, Matthew Dean, said: “Around 25,000 customers in Kent and Sussex remain affected by no water or intermittent supplies following the recent cold weather and a subsequent breakout of leaks and bursts across Kent and Sussex, which has resulted in our drinking water storage tanks running very low.”
Bottled water stations remain in place in Tunbridge Wells, East Grinstead and Maidstone, and location details can be found on SEW’s website.
The company has said it is “working around the clock” to fix the leaks and bursts across the counties.
Mr Dean added: “Our customer care team is delivering bottled water to the customers on our priority services register who are most in need.
“We are also supporting hospitals with tankers and providing bottled water for care homes, schools, medical care providers and to support livestock.”
Last week, Mr Hinton was grilled by MPs over his handling of the outage in Tunbridge Wells last month.
Mr Carmichael later sent a letter questioning the “accuracy and intent” of Mr Hinton’s evidence, to which chair Chris Train responded, offering the company’s “sincerest apologies” for the disruption of water supplies before Christmas and responding to the DWI’s evidence to the committee.
An Ofwat spokesperson said on Tuesday: “We are concerned that residents in Kent and Sussex are without water again, and are working closely with the Drinking Water Inspectorate, which is the lead regulator for this latest supply interruption, to ensure that regulation and enforcement is aligned.
“Ofwat already has an active investigation into South East Water related to its supply resilience, and we have met with the company to discuss these latest incidents as part of that investigation.
“We will review all of the evidence before taking a decision on what further action may be required into whether the company has met its legal obligations set out in its licence relating to customer care, including with further potential enforcement action.”
