A power cut at a water treatment plant in southeast England left Gatwick Airport and nearby homes without running water on Sunday, 26 July 2026. Passengers in both airport terminals could not use toilets, buy hot drinks, fill water bottles, or wash their hands.

Gatwick Airport confirmed that a water problem starting in the Horley area was affecting both the North and South terminals. Bars and restaurants had to close, and toilets stopped working. Flights, however, were not affected (The Guardian).

The cause was a power outage at SES Water's Bough Beech water treatment works. This facility cleans and supplies water to parts of the southeast. SES Water reported supply interruptions across the TN11, RH1, RH6, and RH10 postcode areas, covering parts of Surrey and Kent (The Guardian; AP News). The plant started working again by 2pm on Sunday, but the water still needed to be treated before normal supply could return to all areas (The Guardian).

The impact inside the airport was immediate. TalkTV presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer posted on X that there was no running water across the entire airport, meaning no coffees, no water fountains, no flushing toilets, and no hand washing (The Guardian). Former MP Michael Dugher complained on social media that Gatwick was leaving people with nowhere to sit by closing all restaurants and bars, forcing families to sit on the floor (The Guardian).

Roger Wood, a passenger from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, arrived at Gatwick's South Terminal at about 11am on Sunday and said the Wetherspoons outlet was empty and unable to serve customers because staff could not wash their hands (The Guardian). Passengers also faced long queues for the few toilets still working and reported widespread confusion during the outage (BBC News; BBC News).

Bottled water was handed out to passengers and staff across the airport as a temporary fix while supply was being restored (The Guardian).

The broader context here is about how connected our basic systems are. Gatwick, the UK's second-busiest airport, gets all of its drinking water from outside suppliers. When one water treatment plant loses power, the effects on a major airport pile up quickly: food and drink outlets shut because food safety rules require handwashing facilities; toilets become a health risk; and passengers are left with few options. Think of it like a house that depends on a single water pipe. If something breaks at the source, everything downstream stops working.

The fact that flights kept running is notable. It suggests the water failure did not reach the systems that control air traffic, fuel, or runways. But the airport's inability to keep basic sanitation and food services going for an extended period raises questions about how prepared major transport hubs are for utility failures. Handing out bottled water helps for a while, but it cannot replace working toilets and sinks in a building that handles tens of thousands of people a day.

The wider regional impact, affecting homes across Sussex and Kent, places this event in a bigger picture. Power cuts at water treatment plants are not rare, especially during high demand or bad weather. But because this one hit a major international airport, it became very visible. The Bough Beech plant was back up by mid-afternoon, which means the outage was relatively short. Still, there is always a delay between a plant restarting and water reaching every tap, because treated water takes time to travel through the pipe network.

For airport operators, water companies, and regulators, this episode is likely to prompt a closer look at how power supply, water treatment, and critical transport infrastructure depend on each other, and whether current backup plans are good enough for longer outages.