Save water call to maintain normal public supply
Scottish Water is calling on people to use water as efficiently as possible in homes and gardens to help protect resources and maintain normal supplies across the country.
With forecasts of more dry, warm weather to come, Scottish Water is working to ensure supply systems can cope with demand, which has increased during the recent dry weather, and is urging people to help by:
z Using water efficiently in the garden and outdoor spaces by using a watering can instead of a garden hose where possible
z Taking shorter showers z Turning the tap off when brushing teeth
z Only using washing machines and dishwashers when fully loaded
z Using a bucket and sponge rather than a hose to wash the car.
A Scottish Water spokesman said: “The public water supply is resilient and we are continuously monitoring storage levels throughout the country to maintain supplies, but there has been an increase in water use by customers in the past week.
“As a result, the amount of water we put into the network has had to be increased by 100 million litres per day in the past few days. That’s the equivalent of 50 Olympic-sized swimming pools or 1.2 million baths each day.
“We are individually using an average of 180 litres of water per person per day, which remains higher than pre-Covid levels and is higher than the rest of the UK where people use an average of 145 litres per person per day.”
Average reservoir levels across Scotland are at 85 per cent - four per cent lower than average for this time of year and six per cent lower than this time last year.
Kes Juskowiak, Scottish Water’s general manager of customer water services, said: “The recent dry weather has seen an increase in customer use and an additional 100 million litres of water had to be distributed each day across the weekend and on Monday.
“We’re working hard to maintain normal supplies for everyone but would ask that customers consider how they use water and to protect this precious resource.
“We believe a large part of the additional water use is within gardens so we are asking customers to be mindful of how much water they use in outdoor spaces including lawns.”
He added: “Water is always worth saving, so we would ask everyone to do all they can in and around the home and garden to help us keep water flowing normally to their taps. By taking simple steps to reduce the volume used around the home and garden, we can make our country’s water go even further.”
Scottish Water posts facts, tips and activities on social media to raise awareness about saving water and more information on saving water is available at www.yourwateryourlife. co.uk/save.