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A burst main which left up to 2,000 homes and businesses without water on Sunday ruptured again in the early hours of this morning.
South East Water apologised to people living in the Bearsted, Willington and Park Wood areas of Maidstone yesterday, who had been without water since about 10am.
Bottled water was hand-delivered to those who were known to be affected and a station was set up at Bearsted Green where others could pick up bottles if needed.
WATCH: Work to contain the eruption
Supplies were returning to normal in the afternoon, however there was further disruption just hours later when the same 10-inch cast iron water main in Ware Street, Bearsted then burst again at 1.30am.
Water technicians worked through the early hours to fix the leak and resources are now slowly being returned into the pipe, but traffic lights have temporarily been put in place due to the damage caused by the water beneath the road surface.
South East Water’s distribution manager Mark Rice said: “It’s difficult to give an exact number of customers who were without tap water supplies as a result of the issues on Sunday and in the early hours of Monday morning.
“This morning (Monday) we had 10 calls reporting loss of supply.
"Yesterday (Sunday) we believe it had a greater impact and up to 2,000 homes and businesses could have been affected, however, we were able to restore supplies to many by re-routing water around the complex network.
"This means the interruption may have been shorter for some than others.
“We know being without water causes disruption and inconvenience to our customers and would like to thank the community for its patience while we worked to fix the problems.
“Bottled water was made available yesterday and this morning to customers within the immediate area and our Customer Care Team contacted those who are on our Priority Services Register to see if anyone needed extra support.
“Tap water supplies should now be returning to normal for customers affected by the burst this morning (Monday).
"We will be monitoring the situation closely and make further bottled water supplies available, if needed.”
