Taps running dry as water companies feel the heat

Households warned against taking baths and using hosepipes as supplies begin to run short

HOUSEHOLDERS have been warned not to use hosepipes in the heatwave as water supplies slowed to a trickle and companies struggled to keep up with demand.

People were urged to put away garden sprinklers, take short showers instead of baths, use watering cans to water their plants and buckets to clean their cars.

Huge rises in demand for water at morning and evening peak times have forced utility companies to pump billions more litres of water than usual into the system, but they said they were still struggling to keep taps flowing.

Water cut out completely in some areas of Kent and Hertfordshire, and the industry body Water UK warned customers to expect a drop in pressure, urging people to make changes to their habits to save supplies.

Some parts of Staffordshire and Shropshire have seen supplies temporarily interrupted as a result of high demand, prompting Severn Water to set up bottled water collection points “as a precaution”. Overnight tanker crews also injected water directly into pipes in the region to keep customers supplied with water.

Severn Trent said there was plenty of water in reservoirs, and it had put an extra 300million litres of water into its pipes on Wednesday, but the network could only carry “so much”.

Doug Clarke, Severn Trent’s water efficiency expert, said: “We need people to think about how they’re using water – using a sprinkler might green up your lawn but that water would be better used for drinking or washing.” He added: “This is all about being neighbourly. Just think about whether you’re making the absolute best of the drinking water we’re producing for you and your neighbours.”

Customers in some parts of the Home Counties served by Affinity Water also saw water trickling to a stop.

An Affinity Water spokesman said: “We usually supply on average 900 million litres of water each day to 3.6million people and we have had to significantly increase this to meet demand due to the hot weather.

“This demand is averaging at 1.2billion litres of water per day, but at times this has peaked to 1.6billion litres of water in a single day.”

The company is urging people to adopt measures such as watering the garden with a watering can, teaming up children with their friends for paddling pool dates to avoid filling up too many pools, and to not worry about the lawn going brown.

Southern Water said customers “may experience low pressure overnight as we refill the network to exceptionally high water demand. This is likely to be ongoing for the next few nights.”

Rain in winter and spring had helped recharge reservoirs and groundwater supplies, so there were unlikely to be any restrictions such as hosepipe bans this summer, Southern Water said.

Despite high demand, other companies were not reporting any problems relating to the heatwave or raising the threat of hosepipe bans, but called on households to conserve water.