In a press release yesterday South West Water announced that:
South West Water has today announced it will introduce temporary restrictions on hosepipe use for all customers across Devon, Cornwall, parts of Dorset and Somerset and the Isles of Scilly as prolonged dry weather, significantly below average rainfall and continued high demand place increasing pressure on the region’s water resources.
The temporary restrictions will come into effect from 00:01am tomorrow (Saturday 8 August), although customers are being asked to begin following the restrictions immediately to help protect water supplies during the current drought conditions.
The restrictions mean customers should not use hosepipes for activities including watering gardens, washing cars, patios and boats, or filling swimming and paddling pools.
Water can still be used as normal for drinking, flushing toilets, washing and cooking.
The decision follows one of the driest periods in recent years, with rainfall across the South West remaining well below seasonal averages over many months, and leading to the Environment Agency declaring half of England, including the South West, in drought.
In these situations, it is important for South West Water to carefully assess what actions are necessary and appropriate in order to ensure a resilient supply of water to its customers. These decisions are also affected by the Environment Agency Drought Plan responses, and national and regional decisions.
Most recently, the Met Office has announced that England and Wales have provisionally recorded their driest July on record, with Southern England seeing its driest month ever recorded, in a series dating back to 1836.Combined with periods of exceptionally hot weather and sustained high customer demand, water resources have come under increasing pressure.
Despite these challenging conditions, South West Water has been working around the clock to maintain reliable water supplies for customers across the region. This includes maximising water treatment works production, moving water around the network to where it is needed most, increasing leak detection and repairs, and deploying additional resources to protect supplies…
South West Water is asking customers, businesses and visitors to the region to use water wisely by taking shorter showers, turning off taps while brushing teeth and only running washing machines and dishwashers with full loads.
The company will continue to monitor drought conditions and provide regular updates to customers.
The Environment Agency’s most recent weekly rainfall and river flow report for England provides more detail on the “driest month ever recorded”:
Here in South West England we fared slightly better than the south-east, receiving 5% of the long term average rainfall for July compared to a mere 1%. Both regions managed 63% of average rainfall for the May to July quarter.
South West Water also recently published graphs of the water levels in their biggest reservoirs:
Wimbleball obviously is currently the biggest cause for concern, which prompted South West Water to issue last month’s hosepipe ban in Mid Devon. Here in West Devon the water level in Roadford Lake has yet to descend into “drought level 1”, as specified in South West Water’s 2022 Drought Plan:
However, here is the Met Office forecast for total rainfall over the next week:
Perhaps that line will soon be crossed?
