Recently, a major water supply failure affected the area around South East of England, leaving over 24,000 homes in Kent and East Sussex without safe drinking water for several days.
The trouble began at Pembury Water Treatment Works.
A “bad batch” of treatment chemicals contaminated the water and forced the plant to shut down. Over the past few days, the icident has progressed and has now been declared a “major incident”. Residents of affected homes are now being advised to boil any water before drinking it.
Unfortunately, this incident is not limited to homes, but workplaces, schools, and hospitals.
Here are several news reports from various sources.
Bottled Water Stations
Due to the impact of the incident, bottled water stations have been set-up for local residents. Although a nesecary measure, this will cause a significant spike in the usage and disposal of single use plastics.
Water to Go – Where do we come in?
At Water to Go, we have years of experience in water filtration. Our entire product range of filtered water bottles feature a powerful filter that can remove up to 99.9999% of contaminants from any, non-salt water source. This means that when faced with a water crisis such as this, all of those affected will still have access to safe, clean, drinking water.
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Past Incidents (Sourced from Google)
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that incidents with water contamination have happened. Here are some examples of recent incidents. Here is a list of recent incidents involving water contamination.
- Brixham, Devon (May 2024): A contamination of the drinking water supply by the parasite Cryptosporidium led to a boil water notice for residents. This resulted in thousands falling ill and significant local economic disruption.
- South East Water (December 2025): Around 24,000 properties in Kent experienced a water quality issue that required a boil water notice, forcing schools to close.
- Wessex Water (May 2023): The company was fined for a drinking water offence. Details of the offence are not specified in the provided snippet.
- South West Water (September 2022): The company was fined for a drinking water offence after a six-week period when consumers in Barnstaple and Ilfracombe experienced undrinkable water with an unpleasant taste and odor.
- Southern Water (May 2022): The company was fined for improperly managing its disinfection process, which led to high levels of disinfection by-products