‘People are worried it will happen again’: the English village whose water ran out

theguardian.com:

John Ramsden surveyed the parched village green, its yellow grass withered in the midday sun, and wondered what lay ahead. “People are worried it’ll happen again.”

The “again” refers to life without a water supply. Ramsden’s village of Challock, perched in the uplands of the Kent downs, has already survived one bout without mains water this summer.

For six days earlier this month, its taps largely ran dry, forcing its school to close. Challock’s village hall was converted into an emergency centre for distributing bottled water. And even that, residents say, ran out.

Ramsden is among those who fear the taps being turned off again at any moment, saying that his home still has no supply at night. “I checked it again last night and there was none. South East Water monitor the wells, but they seem to have put nothing in place,” said the 79-year-old. He has lived Challock for 32 years, and this, he said, is by some distance the driest.

South East Water deny doing nothing, raising tensions further yesterday by appearing to blame the “interruption to supply” on customers’ excessive use of water during the recent heatwave.

Many of Challock’s 1,000 inhabitants believe it would still be without water if the parish council hadn’t lobbied their local MP, Damian Green, for help. “Within hours of him getting involved, the problem had been solved,” said Ramsden.

At the nearby Halfway House, which stands guard over a busy crossroads, pub landlord Lee was trying to make up for lost trade. Challock’s loss of water meant he had to close for almost an entire week until last Sunday.

“If you’ve got no water, you’ve got no toilets and you can’t open,” he said.

The Halfway House is a popular gastropub, but ordering food supplies became a gamble because