Thousands of homes which were left without water should see their supply gradually return today, bosses have said.

More than 9,000 properties in three areas of the county had no water at all or low pressure but should see it come back this morning.

Families had to be helped by tankers bringing in water, bottles being delivered to their homes and bottle stations being set up.

The problem had continued since Friday, but an update by Southern Water today said: “Supply should be returning to normal to customers throughout the morning.

“This follows our teams successfully getting our supply works running again overnight. However, we are closely monitoring the situation and it will take time for our reservoirs at Adisham and Aylesham to recover.

“To ensure supply remains stable today, we will continue to use tankers to inject water into the network. We will also continue bottled water deliveries to customers on our Priority Services Register.”

The communities affected have been in Adisham, Ash, Aylesham, Bekesbourne, Bishopsbourne, Bridge, Eythorne, Frogham, Goodnestone, Kingston, Minster, Monkton, Patrixbourne, Ramsgate, Staple and Wingham.

Southrn Water engineers ad technicians had worked round the clock to solve the problem and by last night only 1,600 homes remained affected.

The problem occured after difficulties at Wingham Water Supply Works

Due to very heavy rainfall raw water quality in the underground wells has deteriorated, impacting our ability to abstract and treat to the required standard.

Two bottled water stations also remain open until all supplies are fully returned to normal. These are at Aylesham Leisure Centre and the Manston International Airport site .