Thousands of people in Kent are still without tap water due to high demand caused by the heatwave.
About 8,000 customers are affected because nearby reservoirs were at a “critical level” due to “extremely high demand”, said South East Water.
It said taps should start to run again later on Friday but supplies could be patchy over the weekend.
South East Water said another 7,000 households in Tankerton, Ashford and surrounding areas were also getting low pressure or an intermittent supply – with a further 7,000 at risk of some supply loss
The firm has asked people to stop using jet washers, hosepipes, paddling pools and sprinklers.
Matthew Dean, its head of operations control, said: “We are continuing to ask customers in supply to use water for essential purposes only – for drinking, washing and cooking.
“We have bottled water collection stations already set up and are monitoring.”
Tankers have also been adding water to the network in areas that are struggling.
The problems have grown significantly since Monday when South East Water said around 250 properties were affected.
The firm said it planned for the hot weather but demand was still outstripping the speed at which it could treat and pump water to customers’ homes.
It said 670 million litres had been used across its area on Bank Holiday Monday, 100 million litres more than average.
This comes after former South East Water boss, David Hinton, quit after supply failures earlier this month.
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