A water company is asking householders to curb their use of children’s paddling pools as hundreds of properties are without water in the heatwave.South East Water has urged people to use water blasters – pressure washers or toy water guns – to reduce the high demand for water.Homes around Ashford, Maidstone and Cranbrook in Kent, and Battle in East Sussex and Hurstpierpoint in West Sussex suffered interruptions to their water supply on Wednesday.Nearly 800 properties in three villages in Kent had several days of disruptions over the bank holiday weekend.The company is calling on residents to use water for “essential purposes only” such as drinking, washing and cooking, because its water stores are low already and demand is outstripping the speed at which it can treat it and pump it to homes. “We're sorry to customers experiencing water supply issues. Exceptionally high temperatures have, as expected, created very high demand for tap water supplies,” a company spokesperson said.Some residents have faced water outages in Kent and parts of Sussex (Gareth Fuller/PA) (PA Wire)“Despite planning for very high demand given the weather forecasts, by increasing output at our water treatment works across our supply area and putting extra water into the network, we're experiencing low storage across our supply area.”Earlier this month, South East Water’s chief executive David Hinton resigned, just a week after the company's chair quit amid widespread criticism over significant supply outages across Kent and Sussex. Under sweeping government reforms of water regulation, companies will be compelled to conduct mandatory “MOTs” on their infrastructure.Residents are being asked to stop using jet washes, hosepipes and sprinklers, as well as swapping paddling pools for water blasters. “The car and patio can wait for a wash,” it said. “Reuse water from baths, showers and sinks in the garden.”May temperature records were broken on both Monday and Tuesday, when 35.1C was reached in London, and most of the rest of the UK sweltered in extreme heat.South East Water said the water network was a "like motorway" – when everyone uses it at once, roads come to a standstill.“When a whole neighbourhood uses water all at the same time, it pulls water out of the local pipes so fast that the pressure drops,” it said.“We have also had some leaks and bursts on the network. We understand this is extremely frustrating.” The company said it was working hard to fix them as quickly as possible.Experts advise against taking cold showers during heatwaves.