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Around 24,000 households in the Kent town have been left without a water supply for four days
Nicole Wootton-CaneWednesday 03 December 2025 08:16 GMTComments
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A woman who had a major operation cancelled amid days-long water outages in a Kent town has hit out at utilities bosses for letting down “vulnerable” people.
Jessie Wilson, 47, was due to have a hysterectomy at the Nuffield Health Tunbridge Wells Hospital on Tuesday. But at the last minute, her procedure was cancelled after water provider South East Water (SEW) confirmed the outages would spill over into a fourth day.
It comes after an issue at a treatment works forced SEW to turn off the taps for up to 24,000 customers in Tunbridge Wells, Pembury, Frant and Eridge on Saturday. The shutdown has seen schools and businesses unable to open and left thousands reliant on local water stations.
Nuffield Health confirmed its hospital in Tunbridge Wells had also been impacted by the water outage, with non-urgent procedures being postponed.
Ms Wilson told The Independent she will now have to have the operation just days before Christmas, which is likely to leave her bed-bound over the festive period. She slammed SEW for “overpromising” and leaving residents scrambling.
“I don’t want to be one-week post surgery on Christmas Day, but not I’ve got absolutely no choice,” she said. “I’m a single mum with a 16-year-old autistic teen and I feel bad for her more than anything because her Christmas is not going to be the best.”
open image in galleryJessie Wilson, 47, has had her hysterectomy cancelled after water outages in Tunbridge Wells (Jessie Wilson)Ms Wilson only discovered she would need the operation around four weeks ago following an initial scan. She said she has spent the last week “mentally preparing” for the procedure, only for it to be cancelled at the eleventh hour due constantly shifting estimates from SEW.
“I had an appointment with my consultant at around 12:30 on Monday and we both thought it would still be going ahead,” she said, citing SEW’s guidance at the time which had advised water should be restored by 8pm that evening.
But her hopes were dashed when she received a call at around 4pm, cancelling the procedure as the water wouldn’t be back in time. While she believes the hospital has its own tanks to provide for current patients, she believes it did not want to take on new patients due to the shortage.
Ms Wilson acknowledged the situation was out of the hospital’s control, but said that knowing she will have to prepare to go through the operation all over again is the “biggest thing”.
“I wish SEW had been a little bit more realistic with the timings,” she said. “Someone should have been able to do some rough calculations - you shouldn’t overpromise.”
Ms Wilson is a resident of Tunbridge Wells herself, and has been living without a water supply in her own home since Saturday evening, a situation she said has “not been easy”.
She has been forced to wash her face and hands in the sinks at her daughter’s school five miles away, and has resorted to throwing buckets of water down her toilet in an attempt to flush waste.
But she said she was mostly concerned about elderly and vulnerable people who may be suffering alone without access to water.
“I don’t want to complain too much, people have it far worse than we do,” she said. “There must be elderly people who are in a vulnerable state who don’t necessarily have family nearby.
open image in galleryResidents in Tunbridge Wells have been forced to rely on local water stations (PA)“It’s not beyond the realms of possibility to think there might be people not surviving this.”
On Tuesday, Age UK Tunbridge Wells issued an appeal for any spare bottles of water that could go to help vulnerable clients. Chief executive Sandra Springett told The Independent the charity had been forced to cancel its day care service on Monday as its building had been left with no running water, but it had managed to resume operations on Tuesday.
She added staff had also been out delivering hot meals and checking on vulnerable residents despite the difficult circumstances.
“Fortunately, the majority of people we have contacted are being supported by their neighbours, friends and family and other independent organisation like us stepping in as needed,” she said.
open image in galleryCharities are appealing for any spare water bottles to help the elderly (PA)But Ms Springett added the problem is “not really resolved with a six pack of mineral water”.
“Kettles need filling, toilet cisterns need filling and manhandling big bottles of water is not easy for everyone,” she continued. “The disruption to daily routines cannot be underestimated, especially for older people who usually try to soldier on independently.”
SEW said following a recurrence of the water quality issues that caused the shutdown, it was now “very unlikely” to be able to reintroduce supplies on Tuesday to all customers currently without water.
It added it had opened a number of bottled water stations and said staff are “continuing to deliver bottled water to more than 2,000 of our most vulnerable customers on our PSR register”.
“We are continuing to move water around our network and have tankered more than 6.5 million litres of water into the town to keep as many customers in supply as possible and have handed out more than 400,000 litres of bottled water,” it added.
A Nuffield Hospital spokesperson said: “We can confirm a water outage affecting the Tunbridge Wells area, which is outside of our control and has impacted supply to our hospital.
“As a precaution, we have rescheduled non-urgent procedures to conserve back-up water reserves for essential care only. We are working closely with local authorities and await updates on resolution."
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