Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
Water company chief executive involved in a major supply issue kent A director has said he should not resign because the issues in the industry are “much wider than individual people”.
south east water (SEW) has issued a “boil water notice” for 24,000 homes in and around tunbridge wells Those who have experienced water shortage or low pressure since November 29.
On Wednesday the company said the “water quality issues” that caused the initial shutdown had returned.
They have decided to continue pumping water so that people can flush their toilets and take baths, but the water cannot be drunk without boiling it first.
liberal democrat MP Mike Martin told BBC Earlier this week it was said there was a “complete failure of leadership” and SEW chief executive Dave Hinton was asked to resign.
SEW Water Supply director Douglas Whitfield said the demands for resignation “fundamentally misunderstand the challenges we have faced as a company over the last few years in the event that we move forward as an industry, I don’t think that’s helpful”.
He told BBC Radio Kent: “I would like to point you to the Independent Water Commission which outlines the challenges the water industry faces and the changes that need to be made.
“They are much broader than individual companies and individual people.”
Mr Whitfield apologized to customers and said the precautionary boil notice was in place for 10 days because “public health is our key priority”.
But he said he was unable to guarantee that the water quality problem would be resolved within 10 days because he was unable to give a “definitive answer” as to why the water was not responding to normal treatment.
He said: “For the last 24 hours, the treatment process has actually been running within all water quality parameters.
“We will continue to work to keep that boil notice in place until we are confident that we have addressed the problem and it will not happen again.
“I can confirm that we supplied water up to the point where we put a boil notice in place and all regulations were fully followed.”
Mr Whitfield apologized for “overly optimistic” messages given to customers since the problem began, but said it was “one of the most complex incidents we have ever seen”.
He added: “I can only apologize to customers for the past week and the communication we gave during the incident was just what we thought was going to happen at the time.
“What we thought was an incident that was happening over the weekend has turned into a much longer, more complex issue that we are trying to resolve.”
The Consumer Council for Water (CCW), an independent body representing water consumers in England and Wales, has called for a thorough investigation into the incident.