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First Hosepipe Ban in England since 2012 on the way

United Utilities, which serves seven million people in the North West, say they will have “no choice” but to enforce a hosepipe ban if water demand does not drop in the coming days.

The water company had already asked customers to swap baths for a quick shower, but said it was still supplying 400 million litres of water a day above the normal levels.

Rainfall has not been seen in the North West for three weeks, leading to unusually low levels in reservoirs and underground aquifers.

United Utilities say they will impose a “temporary use ban” – also known as a hosepipe ban – if demand for water and lack of rainfall continues.

The hosepipe ban will initially apply to domestic customers, allowing businesses to continue using water supplies as normal.

A spokesperson said: “The prolonged hot weather means the region’s reservoir stores have decreased since last week, with some reservoirs looking more dramatic than others.

“The reducing reservoir levels are not surprising given the ongoing lack of rainfall and exceptionally high demand. We are managing resources carefully, and our integrated network, which we have invested heavily in, does gives us the flexibility to move water around the region, to reduce demand on those sources which are lower.

“We are still encouraging our customers to voluntarily use water efficiently, by avoiding the use of water hungry devices, particularly outside in the garden. However, if demand does not reduce in the next few days we’ll have no choice but to introduce enforced restrictions.”

Reservoir levels have the total regional water stock at 71.4 per cent – compared to 84.1 per cent this time last year. The main issue this year is the huge increase in demand for water.

Reservoirs in the region are currently at 63.9 per cent – compared to 73.3 per cent last year. Haweswater and Thirlmere in the Lake District are at 57.8 per cent – 79 per cent 12 months ago.

A spokesman for the Met office said: “It is possible we could see some light rain on Monday, but it is nothing substantial and just isolated showers.

“In terms of weather conditions we have got another period of high pressure that will bring some warm temperatures again.

“We are expecting it in some parts for the temperatures to go back up again, on Sunday and Monday we could see highs of 31C to 32C in some places.

“In the north west there will be no significant rainfall over the next week. The conditions that are building over the weekend look to remain the same for the end of the next week.

“There might be some relief the following week. It looks like conditions in the Atlantic might start to signify an early change, but we don’t know yet if it will amount to anything meaningful yet.”

A Hosepipe Ban is already in place in Northern Ireland and other parts of the country look likely to follow. See our Current Situation page for the latest updates.

8 replies on “First Hosepipe Ban in England since 2012 on the way”

Funnee!
Seriously tho – why aren’y there more reservoirs?
Yes- impose a national hosepipe ban -if it really helps-its better than waiting until its “critical”-which is what seems to happen here & abroad in a crisis.

Well I do- with coconut water or blackcurrant juice!

Seriously tho – why aren’t there more reservoirs!!
Yes impose hosepipe bans before it gets to ‘critical’ stage, which is what seems to happen in any crisis here & abroad.

I often wonder why, in a shortage, don’t the water companies just dilute it, surely that would make it go a lot further.

Astonished! UU have greedily taken huge profits and disgracefully failed to properly re-invest into getting the infrastructure to where it should be in the 21st Century. This is what happens when you have a monopoly that can do what it want with little regulation and a ‘watchdog’ supporting its’ stance is a joke! Near where we live there has been a pipe leaking many gallons of water a day that has not been plugged for weeks – utterly shameful!

Ok I admit as family we use quite a lot of water 💦 however I pay £725 per year for a 4 bed semi detached so I feel why does united utilities need make billions ignoring pound profit instead use this money to employ more people and build stronger infrastructure as we had no rain for 3 weeks not 3 months or 3 years – come on maybe the management need to customer in bonus and operate a company correcty as let’s be honest in the north west we can’t swop suppliers hence why they can waste millions of pounds !

Mike Byrne is absolutely right. I would go further and say that the clutter left by the water utility company is deliberate.

It would help looking through your website if you deleted the useless clutter of old hosepipe bans. I do not need to know about 2012 hosepipe ban or any others. I just need the current situation.

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