// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Over 8,000 affected by water supply disruption
A number of bottled water stations have been opened to help people affected by the outages
More than 8,000 South East Water customers have been affected by water supply issues across various parts of Kent.
The firm said its staff were exhausted and "pushed to limits" as they attempted to restore water to areas including Herne Bay, Blean and Brabourne.
It said problems in the Wraik Hill area had been resolved but the storage tank remained "critically low", while in Benenden and surrounding areas about 400 properties had low pressure or no water after pipe bursts and high demand during the hot weather.
The firm apologised to customers and warned that some might not see water supplies return for a "couple of days" until demand drops and storage tank levels increase.
South East Water said issues were a result of prolonged hot weather, high demand, recent pipe bursts, and overnight power issues.
Mike Pickard, incident support manager at the water company, told BBC South East: "It's an ongoing challenge for us at the moment and we apologise sincerely to all affected customers."
He admitted the situation was "unacceptable" but said the firm was doing everything it could.
He added: "Our team is exhausted and being pushed to limits to make sure water is running."
Jenny Rhodes, incident manager at South East Water, urged customers with water to only use it for essential reasons.