00:00It's been yet another 24 hours of water woes for residents in Kent, with blame this time
00:06turning to low storage levels due to a naturally higher demand in this hot weather. In the
00:12Maidstone countryside the dry taps have brought about a familiar disdain, although in Kingswood
00:17many have received deliveries. Yeah we lost it yesterday and then we had a man deliver
00:2312 bottles of water yesterday and another 12 today and yeah it's good really we're quite pleased
00:32with that yeah there's not much they can do about it it's obviously they've got a major leak somewhere so.
00:36Not all have been as lucky driving around streets are inconsistent where bottled water has been
00:41delivered it's pushed some to take matters into their own hands. This time the communication
00:47coming from southeast water has been a lot better and obviously the distribution of water has been a
00:53lot better however it still needs to go further because we've been hearing from our residents
00:59that the water's being left at the top of driveways we've got a high proportion of elderly residents in
01:07the village and they can't lift those back to their houses and we've also had reports of water being
01:14stolen as well. I think it could be down it's down to panic or you know it's just not being
01:20very
01:20considerate to the to the rest of the residents. I think everybody finds it quite astonishing
01:27in this day and age that we're having water shortages in the UK this prolonged spell of hot
01:35weather has been in the media for some time and I think it's people are more frustrated at the lack
01:41of
01:41foresight from the water companies in general. The nearest water station to Kingswood is around a 15
01:46minute drive away or an over an hour walk but over in Headcorn for non-drivers the nearest southeast
01:53water station is a three hour hike away. Now it's been around 20 hours since the start of this outage
02:00and I'm at Maidstone Leisure Centre one of three of the core water stations set up by southeast water
02:05and people are kind of trickling in there's not a huge amount of people coming in and out at the
02:09moment
02:10that's because there is mention that the water will be coming back throughout the day today
02:13although this station will remain open for the rest of the day. What's your reaction to these repeated
02:18water outages? At first you get a bit fed up but now you're getting used to it. It's like everything
02:24you get used to, you manage somehow. Last week Southeast Water's new CEO told us investment in Kent's
02:31water infrastructure was planned but with the hot weather not letting up for several weeks how
02:36supplies cope for the rest of the season. Chloe Brewster for KMTV
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