Water firm calls off its hosepipe ban ...for now
Drop in demand and more rain helped ease crisis, but United Utilities warn we are not home and dry yet
A HOSEPIPE ban affecting millions of people in the North West of England has been called off, three days before it was due to start, but restrictions could be enforced in the autumn, United Utilities has warned.
The water provider said on Tuesday that there would be no U-turn on the ban, but yesterday morning it said the “recent deluge and drop in temperatures” had eased demand.
It said customers’ efforts to conserve water had helped in the decision to call off the ban, but restrictions may still be implemented later in the year.
Dr Martin Padley, water services director at United Utilities, said: “Given the improved position, helped by recent rainfall, we do not want to inconvenience customers unnecessarily.
“However, the long-range forecast from the Met Office is one of relatively dry weather into the autumn, so restrictions are still a possibility.”
Water companies have been criticised for failing to fix leaks in the supply network, which has meant the loss of thousands of gallons of water daily.
The recent warm and dry weather magnified the problem, but Mr Padley said the issue was under control. “We’d like to thank all our customers who have helped in recent weeks by saving water wherever they can around the home and in the garden,” he said.
“Our leakage teams are working 24-hours-a-day to find and repair as many leaks as possible and we have been moving water around our network ... we are continuing to step up our own response and over the coming weeks you will see our teams bringing additional water supplies online and fixing even more leaks.”
He added that the company was working closely with the Environment Agency to monitor water resources, but said they would need customers to continue to use water wisely.
At least seven areas served by the company recently suffered infrastructure failures leading to discoloured water and taps running dry. In Preston, mobile tankers had to supply emergency water while engineers repaired damage to the mains network.
Meanwhile, homes around the Etihad Stadium in Manchester were left with little or no water, a situation also seen in Liverpool, Ashton-underlyne, as well as rural and urban parts of Cheshire and Lancashire.
It followed heavy criticism of United Utilities’ leakage record after it was revealed that the firm lost the equivalent of 175 Olympic-sized swimming pools of fresh water every day.
Thames Water has also warned customers that they need to watch their water usage, adding this may become the norm in future summers. During
‘The Met Office forecasts relatively dry weather into the autumn, so restrictions are still a possibility’
the heatwave, the company pumped an extra 450 million litres of water a day into the network – an extra 17 per cent – but this week and last week demand fell to 10 per cent lower than usual.
A Thames Water spokesman said: “The average person in our region uses 143 litres of water a day, which can jump to more than 160 during hot weather.
“People use the water faster than it can be treated and pumped through the network. Improvements in infrastructure are happening all the time, but demand needs to be reduced, too.”
Today, a hosepipe ban came into force on the Isle of Man, affecting up to 100,000 people.
Residents on the island off Cumbria in the Irish Sea face £1,000 fines if they use hosepipes or sprinklers. Manx Utilities warned: “If there is minimal rainfall over the next three months, levels might become critically low.”