South East Water issue plea for residents to only use 'essential' water as Sussex temperatures soar

In a statement, a spokesperson for South East Water said: “Due to temperatures soaring across our region in recent days and the prolonged dry weather we’ve experienced for the last six weeks we’re having to pump much more drinking water to customer taps than normal.“This, coupled with not seeing any significant rainfall since the end of April has put considerable pressure on our ability treat, pump and supply water to our all customers.“Demand has been rising over the last few weeks, but over the weekend we treated and pumped enough water to supply an additional four towns the size of Maidstone or Eastbourne.“This has impacted on the amount of treated water we have in our drinking water storage tanks across the regions.“We’re asking for our customers to commit to only using water that’s needed for essentials – things like drinking, cooking and hygiene. If we can all do that for the next few days, we will be able to refill the network much faster.”

The warning comes after Sussex is set to be hit with a spell of incredibly hot weather.

According to the Met Office, the county will be hit with highs of 29 degrees Celsius at its peak, in places such as Horsham, Crawley and Chichester.

Others at 28 degrees include Lewes and East Grinstead, while coastal areas like Littlehampton, Bognor Regis, Eastbourne and Hastings will be much cooler at 24.