We understand that losing your water supply or suffering from low water pressure can be frustrating and worrying. Here, we explain what help to expect.
We know that drinking water is central to everything we do, and something we all rely on for hydration, cooking and cleaning.
Every day we work hard to ensure that every one of our 2.3 million customers receives an uninterrupted water supply, but if things do go wrong, we want to outline what you should expect from us, until your mains water supply is restored.
How we will keep you updated
Our industry leading service update tool, AquAlerter, provides live updates on supply interruptions across the South East Water supply area. You can sign up for SMS alerts and stay notified 24/7 with our live map, as well as view bottled water station locations, check your water hardness and report a leak to us.
If there is a problem with your water supply, we may also keep you updated by:
- Text messages
- Social media
- Emails
- News bulletins on regional media (e.g. BBC / ITV)
If there is an interruption to your water supply and we have your mobile phone number, we will contact you directly via our text message service to keep you updated – there’s no need to sign up. If we don’t have your mobile phone number, call us on 0333 000 0001(opens in a new tab), and we can update your account details.
You can also update your account details via your South East Water My Account portal.
As there are different reasons why your water supply might be interrupted, we will make sure that the updates that we give you are helpful, timely, relevant and as frequent as possible.
What does a supply interruption mean?
An interruption to your water supply is when the drinking water we supply to your taps isn't up to the usual high standard of what you would expect. This could mean the pressure is low, the water is discoloured or cloudy, or there is no water at all.
Sometimes, there may not seem like an obvious issue with your water supply, but you may receive a notice from us to boil your water before drinking it, or asking you to refrain from drinking your water all together.
Receiving a Boil Water Notice
If you receive a notice to boil your water before drinking, it means the water in your tap might contain bacteria which could be harmful to your health. Before it reaches your tap, water undergoes a series of processes which kill or inactivate bacteria and viruses. On very rare occasions, our systems can fail. Usually this can be due to weather emergencies or engineering works. If your water supply is affected, we will issue a notice instructing you to boil your water before use.
If you receive a notice from us, you should boil water before you drink it, use it to brush your teeth, make ice cubes, prepare food, clean feeding equipment or give it to your pets.
The water is still safe to shower and bathe in, but make sure it does not go in your mouth. It is also safe to wash dishes, if you use hot water and dry them thoroughly before use. You can continue to wash clothes and flush the toilet as normal.
Receiving a Do Not Drink Notice
We continuously monitor and test the processes we use to treat and pump water to your taps, however occasionally, systems and processes can fail.
If you receive a Do Not Drink Notice from us, it means that your tap water may contain harmful contaminants that cannot be removed by boiling. It's important to remember that this is a very rare incident.
In the very unlikely event you may receive a Do Not Drink notice from us, it is very important that you do not drink or consume your tap water at all, as it may be at risk of contamination.
You can continue to use your tap water for showering, bathing and flushing your toilet.
Bottled water - what to expect from us
Whenever your water supply is interrupted, our priority is to put things right; fix the problem and get your mains water supply flowing again.
However, sometimes, the problem is more complex and can take some time to fix. When that happens, we need to make sure that you have access to bottled drinking water if your interruption lasts for more than twelve hours.
If this occurs, we will provide you with an alternative water supply. This usually takes the form of bottled water, that will be available at a bottled water station.
You are entitled to 10 litres of bottled water for every 24 hours that you are without a mains water supply, and we will do everything we can to ensure that there is enough bottled water available for everyone who needs it.
We understand that ensuring livestock have access to a water supply is really important. To ensure we can help, we open up our livestock fill points located in Sussex, Kent and Hampshire to allow livestock owners to fill up any bowsers of tanks free of charge for the duration of any incident.
Bottled water station locations
We will work with local partners (for example. your council or other local community groups) to set up bottled water stations in accessible areas, as close to the centre of the interruption as possible.
Normally we will set up a bottled water station in a large car park, meaning that you’ll be able to pick up water easily, and we can also safely operate forklifts and replenish the station with deliveries made by large articulated lorries.
We have a list of sites across our operating area that are suitable for hosting bottled water stations. However, when needed, we might find that those sites are not available. This may mean that we must host a bottled water station further away than we would like to.
We aim to ensure that South East Water staff are on hand to help distribute bottled water, and they may be supported by staff from local councils or other groups.
We would ask that you only collect bottled water if you have no water supply – collecting it ‘just in case’ may prevent those who need bottled water from accessing help.
How to identify staff on the ground
If you’re visiting a bottled water station, our colleagues will be easily identifiable, wearing brightly coloured personal protective equipment (PPE), such as a hi-vis vest or jacket.
However, if you are on our PSR and have requested deliveries of bottled water at home, it’s important that you know that any visitor is genuine. Staff usually deliver bottled water to your door and won’t enter your home.
In the unlikely event that a member of staff would need to enter your home, all South East Water employees who need to enter your home have an identity card. All identity cards carry standard information, including a photograph of the member of staff and our Company logo. Our employees are trained to show their identity cards to you without being asked.
Our employees wear a very distinctive uniform, which should make it easier for you to identify them as South East Water employees. We do have contractors working for us but, we make sure that they can be clearly identified as working for South East Water.
All company vehicles used for visiting our customers carry the company colours and logos. Any contractors’ vehicles also identify that they are working on our behalf.
Further guidance is available on our website here(opens in a new tab)
If you need extra help
Our Priority Services Register (PSR) is free to join and provides extra care and support to those who need it most. This may be short-term while you are going through some temporary life changes or longer-term where you may have restricted mobility or may be deaf, blind or partially sighted. It also includes our elderly customers or those suffering a sickness or illness.
Our Priority Services Register is available to everyone who meets our eligibility criteria. You can join our PSR by clicking here.
By joining our PSR and requesting deliveries of water bottles, we will ensure that bottled water is delivered to you directly without you needing to leave your home.
Our dedicated delivery team will ensure that you have enough bottled water to meet your needs and will replenish this with more bottled water if required.
Sometimes, we work with local partners to help us deliver bottled water – from groups such as Sussex 4x4 or the local Fire and Rescue teams. Our partners should carry identity badges with them. If you want to check if someone is genuine or not, then please call us on 0333 000 0001(opens in a new tab)
Compensation
Our first priority is to ensure that we get your mains drinking water supply restored. Once restored, we will review to see whether compensation is due. If it is, we will automatically compensate you based on our Guaranteed Standards of service (GSS). Our GSS is available on our website here(opens in a new tab)
If compensation is due, we will automatically apply compensation to your next bill. There is no need to contact us, and you will see a credit appear on your bill, which will reduce future payments.