Demand for water almost at record demand during the hot weather

IF you have been having problems with your taps recently, there is a good reason for it.

Water customers have reported problems due to losing pressure in their taps

Severn Trent said it was because demand for water has been up by 20 per cent - and it assures customers it is doing all it can.

The company has been deluged due to the hot weather combined with the lockdown, with more people at home.

The company is even offering to pay £1 million to local charities if people cut their water use.

Currently, two billion litres of water per day are being produced by Severn Trent.

It will make the donation if that can drop by 150 million litres per day by the end of June.

A company spokesman said: “Demand for treated water has increased by around 20 per cent since the hot weather started, which is far more than the increase we saw due to hand washing when the coronavirus restrictions started.

“We’re pretty sure it’s because of people using things like sprinklers and pressure washers, especially in the early evening.

“That means we’re almost at record demand and we’re seeing customers across the Midlands experiencing low pressure as, despite our treatment works running flat out, water is being used pretty much as quickly as we can make it.”

Liv Garfield, chief executive of Severn Trent, said: “We know it’s hot, and people need to use more water than normal, but over the last few weeks, we’ve seen demand spike, increasing hundreds of millions of litres every day above normal.”