South East Water: 'We need you to reduce water use'

In an email sent to customers, the water company said it treated and pumped 680 million litres of water on Monday (June 30) in an attempt to keep up with demand.

"This now makes it 16 days in a row where demand has been higher than average for June,” the email said.

“It means that we’ve supplied nearly one billion litres more water in the last two weeks, compared to June 2022.

"So, we urgently need you to keep your water use to essential purposes only - drinking, washing and cooking.”

The water supplier said it has ‘more teams out finding and fixing leaks than ever before’.

“Our sites are treating and pumping as much as they possibly can to replenish treated water storage tanks,” the email continued.

“We are continuing to use our fleet of water tankers to inject water directly into the network.

“However, with demand this high, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get water to everyone.”