As demand outstrips supply, is Kent in danger of running out of water?

Low rainfall, house building, population growth and climate change have become the cocktail which is likely to put Kent under severe water stress in just a few decades. 

Grim harbingers foretell drought, shortages and failing crops. But does Kent have a plan? Local democracy reporter Simon Finlay finds out…

Kent is in danger of running out of water and it all comes down to supply being unable to meet demand.

There is much agreement among local politicians that water, or rather the lack of it, in the county will be a serious issue in decades to come, although one water company seems confident plans are in place to service the need.

It has been a common refrain for communities facing large scale developments to cite water supply and sewage disposal as two main issues, of many, for not building further homes.

It has become political but not in a confrontational way. In fact, it is hard to ignore realities borne of facts.

A report submitted at the tail end of last year to the Kent County Council environment and transport cabinet committee and its findings were stark to say the least.

Areas in the county are already suffering water stress, where demand exceeds the rainfall it gets and the report singles out Folketone & Hythe, Dover, Thanet, Swale, Gravesham and Sevenoaks as those of note.

‘Long-term risks’

The report’s author Simon Jones, the level-headed corporate director for growth, environment and transport, states: “Water stress in Kent poses long-term risks to housing development, economic growth, tourism and everyday water access for residents. It also threatens the county’s rich natural habitats and biodiversity.”

By its geographical location, tucked away in the south-east corner of the United Kingdom, Kent is also one of the driest regions in the country, meaning the authorities are now having to address problems decades hence.

The authority’s 25-year Kent Water Resources Strategy aims to identify and address the challenges ahead.

Mr Jones’ report notes the county has suffered “numerous drought events” in the past 50 years.

“Significant investment will be needed to balance future supply and demand in Kent – depending on the climate path, level of population growth and the mitigation action taken, projections suggest an additional 1.5 – 2.6bn litres per day will be needed by 2080 in the south east,” writes Mr Jones.

And given a place like Dartford, according to KCC’s own figures, has the fastest growth at 38.7% in the past two decades, it makes it clear that future demand is real.

Overall, Kent’s population increased by 19.4% between 2003 and 2023, significantly higher than the 15.6% national average.

Typically, rainwater, rivers, springs and streams are captured in reservoirs as raw water, which needs to be treated before being pumped on to the customer, who pays for the service.

‘Growing demand’

South East Water (SEW) acknowledges that “there is a growing demand for water each year because of an increase in housing, climate change, more use of home appliances such as power showers and washing machines, and the growth of gardening as a leisure activity”.

By its reckoning, local consumers each use around 144 litres per day.

The water company says: “We work hard to balance the demand for water of a growing population while protecting the environment.

“South East Water needs to meet that demand without harming the environment.

“We plan 50 years ahead to ensure there are sufficient supplies to meet the daily needs of both existing and future customers.

“As well as ensuring reliable supplies for customers into the future we are planning to reduce the amount of water that we can take from our sources by 135 million litres per day to ensure a healthy water environment that is resilient to the effects from climate change.”

SEW published its final Water Resources Management Plan 2024 in the autumn of that year.

It contains a 50-year plan to provide “a reliable and resilient” supply of drinking water and this can include new storage facilities, desalination plants, better recycling methods and “strategic transfers” from other regions.

SEW is preparing a raw water reservoir at Broad Oak in Canterbury, aimed at holding 5,126m litres and supplying 22m litres a day. The water will be harvested from the Great Stour at Monkton, held in storage before being treated and sent on to the user.

The company acquired the land in the 1970s and ultimately aims to reduce the amount of water from ground extraction and “are chalk stream habitats” with plans to deliver supplies from it by 2035.

A consultation exercise is due to be carried out in early 2026.

Disruption to supplies to 24,000 SEW customers in December was not as a result of a lack of water but because of a “bad chemical batch” at its treatment works in Pembury.

It’s chief executive David Hinton, who oversaw the problems, was called to answer questions before MPs in Parliament yesterday ( January 6).

It comes after the Drinking Water Inspectorate, which launched an ongoing investigation on December 4 and was also present at the grilling, warned SEW in 2024 of a “significant risk of failure” at the Pembury treatment centre.

The leader of KCC, Linden Kemkaran, also wrote a strongly-worded letter to the secretary of state about the “catastrophic failure” of services to local people.

She wrote: “The reality, however, is that our residents, communities and businesses should not have to foot the bill for the systemic and repeated failures by South East Water or live with the continuing risk of further outages from an organisation that has failed on more than one occasion.”

The episode raised fresh concerns about the way water companies are permitted to operate and can effectively monopolise the market.

Whitstable KCC Green Party member Stuart Heaver says that water shortages were experienced in his division over the summer.

He warned the council’s Flood and Water Management committee that Kent is “sleepwalking into a water catastrophe” and cites an example where residents lost their drinking water for six days in July.

Cllr Heaver says: “On day six, there was slight drizzle and we had the unique privilege of hundreds of residents without drinking water due to a shortage  – while raw sewage was being pumped into our local oyster fishery because the wastewater system was overwhelmed.”

KCC warns fruit-growers producing soft varieties such as cherries and raspberries, who rely on irrigated poly-tunnels to stock the supermarket shelves, will be under increasing threat, too.

In readiness of this, KCC has already funded the pithily-named National Institute of Agricultural Botany East Malling Research (NIAB EMR) to explore water-efficient irrigation methods. The council is also a member of the Holistic Water for Horticulture project.

“Unless more is done to balance water supply and demand, droughts are likely to pose an increasing risk for soft and top fruit and salad production (Kent’s main irrigated crops) in summer months, particularly where they rely in high levels irrigation from river abstraction, reservoirs and groundwater sources,” says Mr Jones’s report.

It is possible to transport water, via pipes, to Kent from other parts of the country.

Much of the Birmingham area is served by the Elan Valley reservoirs in mid-Wales and has been doing so for more than 120 years.

This is done by a 73 mile long, gently sloping aqueduct, which uses gravity, not force, to get the water where it needs to go.

In recent years, during long summer droughts, the water levels in these reservoirs have dropped significantly. But, Wales being Wales and its generous allocation of the UK’s rainfall, the situation rarely persists for too long.

But should Kent’s need become critical, where would a pumped-in supply come from? And how long would the pipe have to be?

Even if Kent was to get another reservoir, like the one that has been in the pipeline for a long time near Canterbury, it still needs to be fed and topped up, say critics.

As of the end of October, of five reservoirs serving Kent, South London and East Sussex, only two had enough water in stock. Bewl, Bough Beech and Powdermill were all lower than they should be.

However, this was before the very wet weather experienced in the weeks leading up to Christmas and New Year.

While the authorities are planning for the future, the Green Party leader of Maidstone Borough Council, Cllr Stuart Jeffery, believes the supply is already under too much pressure.

He says: “The current demand on groundwater, rivers and reservoirs is taking a huge toll…we have lower rainfall than parts of Israel and Kent has the only desert in the UK at Dungeness.

“The idea that we can build more houses without rethinking where the water is coming from and how we use it is ludicrous and dangerous.

“Simply building another reservoir won’t make it rain harder.

“We either need to bring water in from elsewhere in the country or we need to have a local desalination plant in order to build more homes.”