Khaberni - Water was cut off from thousands of households in southeastern England or their water pressure dropped during an unprecedented heat wave that swept the region this week, at a time when high demand after a dry spring exposed the flaws of the aging infrastructure in Britain.
The incident response manager at South East Water, Matthew Dean, said at its peak, the disruption affected more than 20,000 people, including about 8,000 who had their supplies completely cut off in the coastal town of Whitstable. People lined up on Friday to secure emergency water supplies.
According to the Environment Agency, Britain, like most of Europe, experienced a heat wave last week that led to increased water demand, at a time when water levels in some reservoirs dropped due to rainfall amounts being much lower than average in March/April.
According to Reuters, anger has been mounting in recent years due to the lack of investment by private water companies in networks, resulting in repeated sewage leaks.
Many businesses in Whitstable were forced to close during one of the busiest business weeks of the year, coinciding with a school holiday.
Cafe owner Mark Kidd expressed his frustration with the situation, saying "If you cannot wash your hands, you cannot prepare food," pointing out that hotter areas in the world have managed to maintain water supplies.
South East Water, the local company in that area, apologized for the current issues, saying that exceptionally high temperatures caused a sharp increase in demand.
It mentioned that it is suffering from "a decline in water stock in each of our supply areas" despite plans to cope with high temperatures.
The company, which serves about 2.3 million drinking water customers, stated that it pumped 628 million liters on Wednesday, about 100 million liters above the seasonal average, reflecting the response to the rising temperatures.
Experts say that the likelihood of dry periods followed by brief intense heat waves has increased with global temperature rises, complicating the water companies' ability to balance supply and demand.
On Friday, the Minister for Water said companies need to prepare for more frequent intense heat periods.
The Independent Committee on Climate Change in Britain warned that the country will witness hotter and drier summer seasons, and that adapting to this will require investments of about 11 billion pounds sterling ($14.76 billion) annually.
