South East Water says it will need an extra 145million litres every day by 2040 to keep taps flowing in the county.

The company has identified a site at Broad Oak, near Canterbury, for a new reservoir and also plans to build a desalination plant at Reculver.

The reservoir would produce 13million litres a day and the desalination plant around eight million.

An average home uses 160 litres a day and these new sites are expected to be able to supply around 34,000 homes.

South East Water said the proposals are in their early stages and firm details will be unveiled over the next five years - but building work is not expected until around 2035.

The firm carried out desalination tests at Reculver in the 1990s and a bore hole is already at the site, which would take stocks from underground rather than the sea.

There have previously been larger plans for Broad Oak, but the water company said the new planned reservoir is smaller to prevent damage to wildlife and woodland sites.

he bid for a new reservoir and desalination plant come in South East Water’s draft Water Resources Management Plan.

The long-term plan includes proposals for reducing leakage to below 10% on company water mains, developing groundwater sources at sites including Maytham Farm in Rolvenden.

It also includes an idea to take treated wastewater from an existing plant at Aylesford, putting it back into local river systems and then later treating it to make it safe to drink.

Paul Seeley, from South East Water, said: "We're operating in the driest region of the country, and yet that same region will see more people and more homes over the next 25 years.

"Our plan shows we will need up to an extra 145 million litres of water by 2040 to meet that demand.

"We're proposing a range of options that make what water we already have go further – such as reducing leakage and delivering metering and water efficiency programmes.

"But on their own, these types of initiatives will simply not be enough to meet the shortfall.

"Combined, our proposals will deliver an extra 167 million litres of water a day – just enough to meet that predicted shortfall, and give us a little bit of flexibility too."

South East Water, which provides drinking water to thousands of customers across Kent, is now asking people for their views by clicking here.

The final plan is expected to be published early next year.