I’ve lived in Tunbridge Wells for 20 years, and have never met anyone disgusted. Until this week. Yup, we’re all disgusted now. As you would be if you couldn’t flush your loo for days on end, nor take a shower, nor wash your hands, nor drink a glass of water without schlepping to a communal bottle station and waiting in a long queue. The Royal bit in our town’s name has never felt more inappropriate.

The Royal bit in our town’s name has never felt more inappropriate

What on earth happened? Well, it all started on Saturday, when thousands of us noticed the water pressure in our taps was weak to wretched. Come Sunday morning, it stopped altogether. It quickly became apparent that South East Water, a company with form in this sort of thing in our town, had managed to botch the treatment works, with the result that pretty much our entire supply had to be shut down for fear of poisoning us. A ‘bad batch of coagulant chemicals’ is to blame, we’re told, though nobody here understands what on earth that means. We just want our water back.

Never mind, said South East, it’ll all be okay by Sunday evening. Just hang in there. Only it wasn’t.........

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