South West reservoir levels recovering, water company says

Stanbrook said this year’s severe drought had made the company realise customer water-saving measures, such as not letting the tap run when cleaning teeth and taking shorter showers, needed to become “lifetime behaviours”.

He said the hosepipe ban was having a “positive impact” as it usually achieved a 3% reduction in demand but people needed to keep it in place a “little longer whilst the recovery establishes itself”.

“I’m really pleased to say our customers are certainly reducing the water they use – you saw that over the summer with the brown lawns.

“People weren’t watering their lawns, they heeded the message.”

He said there was no end date for the hosepipe ban as it was linked to rainfall.

“The Met Office is forecasting a hot 2027, so a lot of our focus is about setting ourselves up for next year… to make sure we have as much raw water available to us…

“The key is having that water for the hot summer next year.”

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