Work continues to restore water supplies to thousands of homes as an MP calls for residents and businesses to be compensated as soon as possible.

People in Tunbridge Wells have been left without water, or had weak intermittent supplies, for nearly a week.

Problems in the town started at the beginning of last week when the cold snap hit the county and essential pipes froze and burst.

It has left many in a desperate state, including pensioners unable to wash or clean for days and families forced to melt snow to be able to flush their toilet.

Conservative MP Greg Clark has been updating his constituents daily after keeping in touch with South East Water chief executive David Hinton.

He described the situation as "unacceptable and appalling" and called for businesses and anyone affected to be compensated as soon as everything is fixed.

Mr Clark said: "There is a glimmer of good news in that the pumping station in Tonbridge is apparently going to come back online Tuesday and should help replenish the reservoir that has been in short supplies.

"On the other hand they're discovering lots of burst pipes which means it will be uncertain in the next few days and supplies will be coming on an off.

"It is unsatisfactory as there should be resilience in the system against this.

"I will keep the pressure on for all the supplies to be restored as possible. I've asked for water to be delivered to people who can't get to the site and residents and businesses need to be compensated, no ifs no buts, when this comes to an end."

Tunbridge Wells residents have faced multiple water problems since the summer heatwave damaged nearby pipes, and South East Water revealed yesterday it is the same pipes which are now causing an issuing after bursting when thawing from the cold weather.

Grace Ockwell, of Sherwood Road, Pembury, has been without water 17 times since the summer.

The 25-year-old, who is five months pregnant and has an eight-month-old son, told KentOnline how she has had to melt snow in order to flush their toilet.

She said: "The service provided has been awful. We have had many excuses as to why the water is not on, including powercuts, burst water pipes, and no water in the reservoir.

"We were melting snow to use to flush the loo. The snow has now gone so we have been collecting rain water but we don't know how long that will last."

Christine Mackinnon, also from the town, says she'll have to cancel Christmas as she can't accommodate a house full of small children with no water.

While Ian White, 80, of Shrublands Court, has been without water since it was originally cut off.

His daughter Zuzi Ledger said: "This is the 8th time dad has been without water over the past several weeks.

"Across that time he has been without water for more than 57 hours but this has been the longest time he has been without water so far."

South East Water said it has found 463 complex leaks in its network in the past week, but the company believes a substantial amount of water being lost could be from customer premises.

On Monday the company again saw an "unprecedented demand for water" which increased by more than 100 million litres to over 620 million litres - the equivalent of adding almost three towns the size of Maidstone or Eastbourne to its network overnight.

Staff has worked throughout the night and and today locating and repairing leaks with each taking four to six hours to complete.

The issue was caused by the extreme weather over the past week and the subsequent thaw which has put extra pressure on the complex underground system of 9,000 miles of pipe which take drinking water from treatment works into clean water storage tanks and then onto homes and businesses.

South East Water chief executive David Hinton said: “We are working flat out to find the leaks on our pipework, but we are also are asking people to look in their attics, airing cupboards, under their sinks and to check the taps out in their gardens to see if they have got any unnoticed leaks which could be a trickle at the moment but later will cause major damage.

“If leaks are detected, they should turn off their water supply at the stop tap and call a plumber.

“Can business owners also go and check on their unoccupied premises and landlords on any unoccupied homes as if there is a leak it could cause continued damage to their property as well as wasting valuable water supplies.

"We are very sorry to our customers who are without water but we are doing everything we can in this incredibly fast moving and challenging situation.

“Overnight we began to see a slight improvement in the levels of our drinking water storage tanks, but with records amount of water still being lost to smaller leaks, particularly on customer premises, this is going to be a slow progress until the majority of pipes are repaired.”

Separately thousands of homes in Thanet are without water.

Vulnerable families claim they have been left high and dry by Southern Water.

An update from South East Water at 7.37am read: "We're still working hard to balance the demand for drinking water with supply following the cold snap.

"Some customers are experiencing intermittent water supplies and we're so sorry for any disruption this may be causing.

"Our team is in the process of opening additional bottled water stations so customers can collect water."

At 11.45am the bottled water stations at Crowborough Beacon Golf Club and Haywards Heath Rugby Football Club had to be temporarily closed for re-stock.

An hour later, South East Water informed it was replenishing bottled water supplies at East Grinstead Rugby Football Club.

The water company has reported some customers in Crowborough are seeing their tap water start to return.

However, it warns it will be intermittent for around 24 hours as the network refills.

Tunbridge Wells council said it had managed to get a further station open at the Salvation Army car park earlier.

But it was still working to get other bottled water stations, including the one at the Tesco superstore at Pembury, reopen.

In a further update issued at 8.27pm tonight, South East Water said : "Bottled water stations at East Grinstead Rugby Football Club and Beacon Academy, Crowborough, will close at 9pm tonight.

"Visit our service updates page for more details."