Anglian Water update on hosepipe ban amid ‘extreme heat’ warning

Anglian Water say their customers are already “some of the UK’s most water efficient”

The company responsible for supplying water across the East of England has announced it has no intention of introducing a region-wide hosepipe ban.

Anglian Water said that, despite the UK experiencing the warmest June temperatures on record, it does believe an outright ban is needed.

Ian Rule, Director of Water Services for Anglian Water said: “We have no plans to introduce a hosepipe ban this year. But during this current heatwave, we’re having to produce more water than ever before to keep everyone on supply, so we’d urge customers to avoid using hosepipes and use less water wherever they can.”

Anglian Water provides vital services to nearly seven million people across the Eastern region. With temperatures reaching the high 30s this week, data showed that customers’ demand for water was much higher than usual.

As a result, the company put a record 1,600 million litres of water into supply on Wednesday, June 24. This addition is a third higher than its typical distribution of 1,200 million litres a day – an increase roughly equivalent to supplying an extra county the size of Lincolnshire.

The director urged people to be mindful of how best to go about using water during hot weather spells to ensure it is utilised economically and efficiently: “Anywhere you can cut back – for instance, by reusing water from paddling pools to water your garden, taking shorter showers or putting off non-essential tasks like washing the car – will make a significant difference over the coming days.”

Along with ditching hosepipes, reusing paddling pool water, and holding off on washing the car, Anglian Water have outlined a number of other ways people can help to conserve water:

• Love your brown lawn: Lawns are tougher than most people think and can easily survive a few days of sunshine. If it desperately needs a drink, make sure to reuse rain or bathwater rather than wasting drinking water;
• Make domestic water work twice as hard: If rinsing food for dinner or a BBQ, don’t let it drain away. Instead collect it in a bowl or jug and use it to feed indoor or garden plants;
• Turn the tap off while brushing teeth: This will save more than two full buckets of water a day;
• Cut showers to just five minutes: this could help the entire Eastern region save over 100 million litres of water every single day – that’s like leaving a tap running for 30 years;
• Run one full load of washing instead of two half loads: This will save 10 litres of water;
• Wash fruit and vegetables in a bowl of fresh water: A running tap uses 15 litres every minute.

Mr Rule said: “Our customers are already some of the UK’s most water efficient. We’d like to thank them for their continued support as we respond to this record-breaking hot weather.”