We've seen an increase in water use recently, with both the warm weather and people spending more time at home, using more water.
There’s plenty of ways to enjoy the sunshine and water this summer and with small changes, we encourage you to help save water, making a big different to our valuable natural resource. Every drop counts!
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Click here to find out more about water butts
This means there’s been more handwashing, cooking and cleaning in our houses and paddling pools and hosepipe use in our gardens. With the warm weather, all of us also want to stay cool. Many of us aren’t travelling abroad this summer so there’s more of us using water at home too.
But if we had so much wet weather before, surely that’s not a problem? Yes, thanks to the rain, we have enough water in our reservoirs and rivers however, to make water safe to drink, it has to go through a treatment process before it arrives at your tap.
On average, we treat 470 million litres of water a day. Since lockdown, we’ve been keeping the water flowing but in hot weather, demand soars so we’ve seen high peaks during lockdown.
Sprinklers, hosepipes and paddling pools all require extreme large quantities of water. Plus everyone suddenly seems to be wanting to wash their car!
So all across the country, water companies are asking everyone to please use water wisely during the lockdown. Please help us to keep the water flowing and save water.
We have no plans in place to implement any drought measures such as hosepipe bans, but it is good practice for everyone to use water wisely.
We’re used to managing demand and dry weather so we’re operating as normal and have tried and tested plans in place. This includes moving water around the network and topping up the network where we can.
However, we would ask our customers to work with us and use water wisely, so that we can continue to manage supplies and keep the water flowing. Customers should continue to keep washing their hands regularly with soap and water to help stop coronavirus spreading.
However, a lot of work goes into turning rainwater into something we can safely drink and use. While our water supplies are at healthy levels, people are using water as quickly as we can treat it and transfer it into our network directly to our customers’ homes.
This means that you might be receiving water from a different part of our network than you’re used to, however it is perfectly safe to drink.
Small changes can make a big difference, from turning the tap off while brushing your teeth or cutting a minute off your morning shower. You should continue to keep washing your hands regularly with soap and water to help stop coronavirus spreading.
From high demand in a hot summer, to burst pipes in winter; the environment has a big impact on our water services
Find out moreEveryday essentials like the washing up can waste water and money, if you're not using these tips
Find out moreUse a water can, with rainwater from a water butt, or use a trigger gun on your hosepipe to cut water waste
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