A pregnant mum has been forced to melt snow and ice after being without water for nearly a week.

Grace Ockwell is one of thousands of people in Tunbridge Wells who have been facing water supply issues for more than five days.

The 25-year-old, of Sherwood Road, who is five months pregnant, explained she and her husband have struggled to make bottles for their eight month old son.

They've also been forced to melt snow in order to flush their toilet.

However, since the snow has stopped they've had to use a waterbutt to catch and collect rain.

Grace, who is classed as a priority due to being pregnant, slammed South East Water for their poor service and failing to deliver any water to them.

"We've been affected tremendously," she said.

"Trying to make bottles for him, clean him when he soils himself, feed him, drink him, flush the loo, and general hygiene due to no water has become hard.

"The service provided has been awful. We have had many excuses as to why the water is not on, including powercuts, burst water pipes, and no water in the reservoir.

"We were melting snow to use to flush the loo. The snow has now gone so we have been collecting rain water but we don't know how long that will last."

Grace and her family are due to visit a friend's house soon to wash their clothes, which they haven't been able to do for a week due to the lack of water.

She believes water problems didn't start last week, but back during the summer heatwave and claims she has been without water for at least 17 days since then, including July, August and November.

Another resident, Christine Mackinnon, said Christmas will be cancelled at her house as she "can't host small children in a waterless home".

South East Water has apologised and set up a bottled water station in Tesco Superstore, Woodgate Corner, Pembury.

The company is "assessing the situation" to see if it needs to set up more in the area.

South East Water’s incident director Douglas Whitfield said: “Customers in the Tunbridge Wells area are experiencing intermittent water supplies today as we continue to face issues balancing supply and demand for drinking water.

“Demand for water has soared again following a drastic increase in burst pipes and customer leaks throughout the area.

“We’re so sorry to customers for the continued disruption which we know is unacceptable. Our team of technicians are working around the clock using a variety of methods to reroute water around the network and ease pressure on our system.

“However, we are also reliant on demand for water to reduce so we can restore supply to normal levels.

“Our bottled water station at Tesco Superstore opened at 9.30am and our customer care team is busy delivering bottled water to those most in need.

“Supply issues are being caused by our underground storage reservoirs running low, meaning the booster pumps that pump water to higher ground stop operating.

“We are working as quickly as we can and our leak teams are on the ground 24/7 locating and fixing these leaks and bursts, but it is impossible to predict where and when they will happen.

“We are continuing to ask customers to check their own pipework in homes, schools and businesses for leaks and bursts together with outside taps and livestock troughs which may have also been damaged by the low temperatures. Even small leaks and bursts can cause issues and damage.

MP Greg Clark visited the town with South East Water's chief executive David Hinton over the weekend.

On Monday he described the situation in the town as "completely unacceptable and appaling".

He said: "There is a glimmer of good news in that the pumping station in Tonbridge is apparently going to come back online Tuesday and should help replenish the reservoir that has been in short supplies.

"On the other hand they're discovering lots of burst pipes which means it will be uncertain in the next few days and supplies will be coming on an off.

"It is unsatisfactory as there should be resillience in the system against this.

"I will keep the pressure on for all the supplies to be restored as possible. I've asked for water to be delivered to people who can't get to the site and residents and businesses need to be compensated, no ifs no buts, when this comes to an end.

Suzie Lewis is one person who has been left demanding questions since last week.

Ian White, 80, of Shrublands Court, has been without water since it was originally cut off.

Speaking to KentOnline yesterday, his daughter Zuzi Ledger explained: "This is the 8th time dad has been without water over the past several weeks.

"Across that time he has been without water for more than 57 hours but this has been the longest time he has been without water so far."

She said: "This has been going on since December 15 in Tunbridge Wells and supposedly being fixed every 8-12 hours since then.

"Shocking service. How do we shower, flush loos, wash clothes? Answers Greg Clark?"

The water company said when water supplies return it may appear brown, cloudy or white.

It is asking its customers for help in reducing demand on its network as it battles to resolve supply issues caused by the snow and ice thawing rapidly.

The company says there have been a 300 per cent increase in the number of bursts than normal both on its supply pipes and on customers’ pipes across Kent and Sussex with around 15,000 homes and businesses without water or with low pressure.