Taps run dry as flaming June breaks heat records

WATER shortages hit the South East yesterday leaving some households with just a trickle dribbling from taps as Britain looked set to sizzle in the hottest June day for 176 years.

The countrywide heatwave entered its fifth day today, making it the longest run of scorching weather since 1995.

Affinity Water, which supplies 3.6 million homes in London and the Home Counties, said many houses had lost water pressure due to unprecedented demand in the hot weather.

At one point, households were consuming 50 per cent more water than at peak times, a spokesman said, and customers were urged to cut back on unnecessary usage.

“Due to the exceptionally hot weather we are experiencing, demand on our network has significantly increased,” a spokesman for Affinity said.

“We are asking customers to assist us by using water wisely to reduce the demand on our network.

“This will help to ensure there is enough water for essentials such as drinking, washing and cooking.”

Affinity was created in 2012 when Rift Acquisitions, an arm of Morgan Stanley, bought Veolia Water. The company relies heavily on groundwater supplies so is suffering more than most because of the hot weather, with supplies running short in Barnet and Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire.

Burst mains also left householders without water in Middlesex and Essex.

No other water company has so far requested a restriction in usage.

Forecasters predicted that temperatures for today’s Summer Solstice could rival those set in June 1976, where 96F (35.6C) was reached in Southampton, the highest temperature for the

month since records began in 1841. The Met Office issued the second-highest heatwave alert for England, a level three amber warning, which is just one level behind a national emergency.

Grahame Madge, a spokesman for the Met Office, said: “It is likely that we’ll have five days in a row with a weather station somewhere in the UK recording 86F (30C) or more from Saturday until tomorrow. The last time that we had five days in a row in June above 30C was from June 26 to June 30 1995.”

The NHS has urged the elderly, children and those with medical conditions to keep cool and hydrated during the heatwave. Those at risk are warned to keep in the shade during the hottest part of the day, between 11am and 3pm.

During the 1995 heatwave, death rates rose by 16 per cent.

On Monday, a teenage boy drowned in Greenbooth Reservoir, a moorland beauty spot outside Rochdale, Greater Manchester, after reportedly getting into difficulties while swimming in the hot weather.

A woman in her 80s is also believed to have drowned off the coast of West Wittering, near Chichester, on Monday. The RNLI warned bathers that the sea off the British coast was still cold enough that they could develop hypothermia unless swimmers were wearing a wetsuit. The hottest temperature yesterday was 88.5F (31.4C), recorded at both Heathrow Airport and Wisley, Surrey, at around 3pm. An air-quality alert was triggered by the mayor of London Sadiq Khan on the city’s transport system yesterday. Due to the prolonged warm weather conditions high levels of pollution are forecast today, a spokesman for the mayor said.