More than 1,000 families face the possibility of Christmas Day without water as a leak continues to affect part of Kent.

Southern Water says it has still not found what is causing the issue which is affecting thousands of homes and was first reported on Monday.

Angry residents in Strood and Rochester have been without water for more than 24 hours after the incident was reported at 5am, with some vulnerable customers not receiving bottled supplies until this morning.

The water company confirmed the outage is due to a burst water main and teams are working “around the clock” to repair the leak.

Water collection stations have now been set up at Keystone Medical Centre in Gun Lane, Rochester.

At 6pm, when asked about the situation, Southern Water posted on X, formerly Twitter, saying: “Unfortunately we've still been unable to find the leak, but our teams will be working throughout the night to locate this for us. Sorry for the inconvenience this is causing.”

Volunteers from Strood Sports Centre will be opening the site tomorrow so those without water can have a shower.

A spokesman for Medway Council, which runs the centre, said: “We will be opening from 9.30am to midday so that residents without water can shower using the sports centre facilities.

“We would like to say a huge thank you to our staff who will be giving up part of their Christmas Day to open the centre.”

One fuming resident, Zoe Burgess, woke up at 7am yesterday to find she had no running water.

The 50-year-old says it has taken the utility company until 9.10am today to deliver bottles to her home.

“They gave me 12 bottles that are two litres each – the equivalent of four flushes,” she explained.

“I’ve sat on the toilet absolutely gagging because it's disgusting.

“I can't wash our clothes and I can't run a bath. I've had washing up sitting in the sink since Monday.”

She added: “My neighbour, who has young children, had to walk down to Martin Road and back with a bucket at 11.30pm. Are we in the third world here?”

A spokesperson for Southern Water said: “We're aware that some affected customers did not receive deliveries of bottled water yesterday.

“We're working to understand why this happened and are prioritising those customers – and customers on our priority services register — this morning.

“We also have our water tankers in the area injecting directly into the network to support supplies.

“We're sending Southern Water colleagues from other areas into Rochester to support the operation and have secured additional resources from our service partners.

“We again apologise for the disruption this has caused and are making every effort possible to restore services.”

Zoe lives on Cliffe Road with her two older children and partner Peter.

The family are preparing themselves for a Christmas without running water.

She said: “On Boxing Day, I'm looking forward to going to my in-laws for a shower. I've not had a bath since Sunday night.

“I’m angry and feel very let down. I'm fortunate enough to have friends that have not been affected and they’ve been bringing water to me."

The utility company issued an update at 9.50am on their website.

It said: “We're sorry to customers in the Strood area of Rochester who are still without water or experiencing low water pressure this morning.

“On Boxing Day, I'm looking forward to going to my in-laws for a shower. I've not had a bath since Sunday night.”

“Our teams have been working through the night to find and fix the burst main which is causing the issue.

“We believe up to 1,000 properties may be affected, although our work overnight will have returned supplies to some households in the area.

“We have delivered bottled water to affected customers and are in the process of identifying a suitable location for a bottled water station.

“We will share more information on this as soon as the details are confirmed.”

Retired Peter Martin, of Bryant Road, said: "The water has been gone since 5pm since yesterday, but we didn't realise until 8pm when the neighbour knocked on the door.

"We rushed down to the supermarket to grab some bottles.

"Everyone is still reasonably happy at the moment, there's been enough water at this stage. We're just letting the guys get on with it and do their work."

Another woman, who only wanted to give her name as AJ, added: "This is absolutely ridiculous. We've got vulnerable people in the house. They've delivered two crates of water, that's not going to go far.

"We're struggling with washing dishes and getting through the day is a nightmare."