Yorkshire Water has announced a hosepipe ban will be imposed from 26 August as reservoirs are 20% lower than average during the driest summer the county has experience in 130 years.
The company is the fifth to announce restrictions in recent weeks. South West said it would be forced to do the same if the dry conditions and high consumption do not abate.
Yorkshire’s director of water Neil Dewis said: “We’ve been doing everything we can to avoid putting in restrictions but unfortunately, they’re now necessary as part of our drought planning.”
Dewis explained the region had not experienced a hosepipe ban since 1995/6 and the company has since then invested in a region-wide grid system to balance water stocks. Leakage has been reduced by 50% since the same time.
The restrictions will allow the company to apply for drought permits from the Environment Agency to abstract more water from rivers and reduce flows from reservoirs to ensure there are sufficient supplies.
“This year we have extra people in our field teams and have adopted a seven-day working pattern so that we can find and fix leaks quicker,” Dewis added.
“We’ve been monitoring reservoir levels, weather forecasts and other environmental indicators closely to determine whether we might need to put further measures in place.”
He expressed gratitude to customers who have been saving water and encouraged them to continue to do so to protect the environment.
A drought was declared across much of England on Friday (12 August), with eight of its fourteen being moved from ‘prolonged dry’ status to ‘in drought’ following the second meeting of the National Drought Group in recent weeks.