Residents in a village have now been without running water for 48 hours.

Around 400 homes and businesses in Loose, near Maidstone, are affected.

It was initially reported on South East Water's website at 4.15pm on Wednesday.

A statement posted yesterday said that following a "booster issue" the company cannot use its pumps.

It went on to say: "Currently the treated water level in the storage reservoir which serves the area remains lower than than needed for our pumps to work consistently.

"As a result customers may still be experiencing intermittent no water or low water pressure whilst we work to resolve this issue.

"The incident team and our technical crews have been working around the clock to resolve this issue including rerouting water from other parts of the network.

"We have also been tankering water into the area to try to refill the network faster to try and restore supplies fully to customers affected."

Residents in the village are now being told that they won't get running water until tomorrow.

Bottles are being handed out at emergency stations – including the Loose Parish Pavilion in Walnut Tree Lane and the YMCA in Melrose Close.

Five Acre Wood School in Boughton Lane is also shut for the second day running.

An update posted on their Facebook page said: "We have regularly been checking the South East Water page and have been informed the estimated completion date is currently showing as the 21st January.

"We would sincerely like to apologise for any disruption and inconvenience caused.

"And we will of course keep you updated with any further information we receive."

New Line Learning Academy, who were shut yesterday, confirmed that they have since reopened to students.

Last Wednesday, homes in Barming, Allington and Loose were all left without water for a day.

This was due to a burst water main, as well as booster pumps that went down due to a power cut.

Nick Bell, South East Water’s incident manager, commented: “We are very sorry to our customers in the Loose area who have had intermittent tap water supplies or low pressure.

"We know how frustrating and the inconvenience it causes.

“The issues have been caused by heavy rain and the cold weather earlier in the week, which affected our water treatment works in Forstal.

"This in turn led to the underground storage reservoir running low. When this happens we are unable to pump tap water to properties on higher ground.

“We have been working around the clock to resolve the problems and get more water into the network, including re-routing water from other parts of the network.

'We are concentrating on resolving the issues and will consider any claims for compensation on a case-by-case basis...'

“However this has to be done very carefully to prevent bursts from happening.

“We are seeing levels in the storage reservoir increase, but it is not possible to say when the levels will return to normal, as the network is very complex.

“At the present time we are concentrating on resolving the issues and will consider any claims for compensation on a case-by-case basis.

“We hope it will be resolved during the weekend and once again, apologise to customers affected.”