Water pumping through hundreds of homes in an area of Herne Bay is coming out of taps rusty-brown in colour.

Pressure problems have prompted South East Water to carry out work that is temporarily disturbing the sediment in the supply today.

Around 400 homes in Sea Street, Greenhill Bridge Road and Clarendon Street have been affected, but a spokesman for the water company insists there is no health risk.

“We are doing a bit of operational tweaking,” said Jane Gould for SE Water. “We have had problems with water pressure and we are reconfiguring the network; basically getting water from another service reservoir.

“This has stirred up a sediment from the mains which we are having to flush through. It’s a bit of a disturbance with the natural deposits and there is absolutely no health risk at all.

“We can only apologise to residents affected.”

The work is expected to be completed by late this afternoon. Homeowners in the area experiencing dirty water are advised to leave taps running until they run clear.

Resident Frederick Tappenden, who lives in Sea Street, said: “My bath has a layer of brown sediment and it’s disgusting.

“I had to phone up South East Water to find out what was going on. It would have been nice to have been warned.”