An MP has slammed a water company for its “unacceptable” response to large parts of her constituency being without water for days.

MP for Wealden Nus Ghani criticised South East Water as more than 2,000 residents in Crowborough, Rotherfield, Mayfield and Wadhurst face a fifth day without supplies.

The water company has blamed soaring temperatures, lack of rain and a rise in demand for the issues, which began on Sunday and have forced schools and businesses to shut.

South East Water’s operations director Douglas Whitfield said the county has not seen “any significant rainfall since the end of April” and this has put “considerable pressure” on the company’s ability to treat, pump and supply water to customers.

But Ms Ghani says the company’s handling of the situation has been “wholly unacceptable”.

"South East Water have failed yet again,” she said.

“Only six months after the hugely disruptive outages in the run up to Christmas, it is unacceptable that Wealden households, businesses and schools in Crowborough, Rotherfield, Mayfield and Wadhurst are without running water again.

“I am making repeated representations to South East Water to make sure they are prioritising these incidents and that water stations are accessible and have sufficient supply.

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“I have spoken to families and headteachers dealing with no water and I have asked South East Water to trigger a hosepipe ban as we are now in an emergency. I have spoken with the leader of East Sussex County Council and I am sharing all correspondence with South East Water to make them aware of the severe level of disruption locally.

“I am particularly concerned about vulnerable residents during this supply situation. South East Water have confirmed that they have been delivering bottled water to affected customers on the priority services register for vulnerable or disabled customers, or those who have children under the age of five.

“South East Water’s response to the ongoing disruption is wholly unacceptable and their lack of communication with customers is appalling.

“I would like to reassure you that I will keep pressing South East Water and Wealden District Council to demand answers as to why we are without water again, especially given the previous incident and firm commitments to fix our infrastructure.”

South East Water's incident manager Steve Andrews said the company is doing "everything it can" to alleviate the supply issues.

“Yesterday we produced 654 megalitres of tap water, when the usual figure is 540," he said.

“All our water treatment works and water sources available to us are being used, but with the demand still so high, our treated water storage reservoirs are not refilling enough to keep all our customers in supply.

“This means up to 2,500 customers, mainly in the Wadhurst area may be without water or have low pressure.

“We are working with schools to try to get alternate water to them. We also have bottled water collection stations set up which will be open from 9.30am today. Details are on our website.

“Customers on our priority services register are receiving deliveries of bottled water from our customer care team.

“We are doing everything we can, including moving water around our network. However we are continuing to ask customers who do have tap water supplies to only use it for essential tasks such as hygiene, hydration and cooking. Please don’t use hosepipes and sprinklers as this drains the system very quickly.”

Wealden District Council is seeking an urgent meeting with the company’s chief executive David Hinton.

A spokesman from the council said: “We continue to support South East Water to monitor the ongoing situation in the district and are keeping our residents informed by sharing communications from South East Water.

“The leader and deputy leader are seeking an urgent meeting with the CEO of South East Water to discuss this situation and raise the concerns of local residents directly with South East Water.”

Sixth form students at Beaconsfield Academy in Crowborough have been told again to go to the school’s Beeches site and Rotherfield Primary School has had to completely close again.