SOS Whitstable

02/06/2026

Great to see Southern Water proudly reporting sewage releases into the North Sea, while South East Water still can’t manage to supply enough actual water. One company dumps it, the other can’t deliver it. What a masterclass in utility services. 👏

29/05/2026

📢 SOS Whitstable Update

We’ve spent the last few days doing something that probably sounds far less exciting than carrying cases of bottled water around town...
Paperwork. Lots and lots of paperwork. 📋
But it’s important paperwork.

We’ve drafted and submitted a formal letter to South East Water, regulators, local councils, government departments and elected representatives asking some of the questions many of you have been raising throughout this crisis.

🧴 Why were some people on the Priority Services Register still reporting they hadn’t received water?

🚗 Why were collection points difficult for some residents to access, especially those without transport?

📞 Why was communication so poor and customer service so difficult to reach?

📦 Who was responsible for distributing water and what safeguards were in place?

🔒 Were appropriate data protection and safeguarding procedures followed?

💷 What compensation will be available for residents and businesses affected by the outage?

❓And perhaps most importantly: what actually went wrong, and how can we stop it happening again?

We’re not interested in blame for the sake of it (well maybe a smidge as we write this at 12pm on a Friday night 😫) Many volunteers, businesses and frontline workers worked incredibly hard during a difficult situation and deserve thanks.

What we do want is transparency, accountability and lessons learned.

Kent residents deserve clear answers, and we’ll continue pushing for them.

We’ll keep everyone updated as responses come in.

What’s your thoughts have we covered everything? 😬🤞

29/05/2026

This chart is a masterclass in how to make ordinary variation look like a crisis.

The biggest problem? The y-axis starts at 500 instead of 0. That massively exaggerates the height differences between the bars, making a relatively modest increase in water demand look dramatic and alarming.

571 ML/d and 670 ML/d are only about a 17% difference — but visually the red bars appear almost twice as large as the green one.

Then there’s the colour coding:
🟢 safe
🟡 warning
🟠 danger
🔴 crisis

Those thresholds are arbitrary, but the design makes the audience feel like demand suddenly becomes catastrophic at 650.

This is why data visualisation ethics matter. Charts shouldn’t be designed to manipulate emotion — they should help people understand reality accurately.

A simple zero-based axis and neutral colours would tell the story honestly….

28/05/2026

Whitstable businesses are being absolutely devastated during peak summer season — restaurants closing, cafés unable to serve customers, bookings cancelled, staff sent home, thousands being lost every day — because there’s no water.

But don’t worry everyone, South East Water have still found the budget for paid Instagram ads asking:
“Is your business summer-ready?”

Yes, apparently this is where your money’s going.

The taps might not work, but the sponsored posts are flowing perfectly. 🧑‍🍳💋

26/05/2026

Big shoutout to South East Water for pioneering the exciting new wellness trend: intermittent hydration.

Nothing says "premium infrastructure" like living next to the actual sea and still having to brush your teeth with Volvic. (Nb. Other bottled water brands are available)

South East Water emails always hit the same:
"We understand your frustration ☺️”
Fantastic, cheers, now can we rinse a plate?

The real miracle isn't the outage - it's how they always manage to phrase it like the water has simply chosen a new journey.

"Supply interruption" is such a classy term.
Makes it sound like the water's taking a gap year.

At this point the company slogan should be:
"Keeping the South East mildly damp since whenever."

Love how the advice is always:
* Limit water use
* Avoid unnecessary washing
* Keep hydrated

Pick one, gladiators.

Somewhere at South East Water HQ there's definitely a man saying
"Have we tried asking customers to stay calm?" while the entirety of Whitstable/Herne Bay/Thanet is fighting over the last 12-pack in Aldi.

Tell us if you haven't got supply. Apparently only 60 houses are affected…..

20/05/2026

We keep seeing posts about “myths” and “facts” on water quality — but many of these claims fall apart the moment you look beyond the headline statistics.

So let’s have a deeper dive ⬇️

💩 “89% of bathing waters are good or excellent”

Sounds reassuring. Until you learn the Environment Agency can disregard certain pollution samples linked to storm overflows and sewage events when calculating ratings.

💩 “Bathing water quality is improving”

Long-term? Yes.
But that doesn’t erase the reality people are seeing NOW:
• sewage discharge alerts
• no-swim warnings after rain
• polluted rivers and coastlines
• repeated overflow releases

Both things can be true at once.

💩 “Bad smells and brown water are probably just algae”

But what feeds algal blooms?

Nutrient pollution — including sewage and agricultural runoff.

Excess phosphorus and nitrogen discharged into rivers and coastal waters can fuel algae growth, reduce oxygen levels, damage ecosystems and make waterways unsafe for people and wildlife alike.

So dismissing visible pollution as “just algae” ignores one of the major causes behind it.

💩 “89% good/excellent” also hides another key detail:

Bathing waters are mainly monitored during the official bathing season — May to September.

So what happens outside those months?
What about winter overflows?
What about pollution spikes after storms?

People don’t stop walking, surfing, paddling or swimming outside summer.

And perhaps the biggest issue of all:

A system that allows pollution events to be excluded from classifications while using those classifications in PR campaigns is always going to face public scepticism.

Nobody expects perfection overnight.

But people do expect honesty, transparency, and water companies that spend less time managing headlines and more time stopping sewage entering rivers and seas in the first place.

27/04/2026

Wow, we are still coming down from such an incredible day on Saturday & we will get around to writing a proper post about it to thank you all for coming………but in the meantime please do sign and share this petition from our wonderful friends at Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP)

We must get this to parliament!!!

Hold a binding national referendum on whether the water industry should be returned to public ownership. Water is a basic human necessity; we believe our privatised system has failed, so the public should decide who owns and controls it.

25/04/2026

TODAYS THE DAY 🆘 📣 🪧

LETS END THIS DIRTY BUSINESS TOGETHER!!