Hosepipe ban for Northamptonshire as Anglian Water introduces restrictions across East of England

The temporary restrictions – the first in Northants since the summer of 2012 – will be implemented immediately and enforced from 1am tomorrow (Saturday, July 11).

However, to help protect water supplies and the environment, the company is asking customers to live within the spirit of these restrictions immediately.

This means that customers should not use hosepipes for watering their gardens, washing cars, patios and boats or filling swimming and paddling pools.

The decision to introduce the ban follows months of prolonged dry weather, warm temperatures and three successive heat waves, which have seen the company producing 30 per cent more water than usual, as well as heat-related challenges affecting normal water treatment and production.

Today’s announcement comes as several other water companies also introduce bans in response to the conditions.

The Environment Agency reported this week that the majority of rivers across the region served by Anglian Water are below normal in terms of flow, with a number at notably low or exceptionally low levels, after only 39 per cent of the expected rain fell this spring.

Anglian Water’s reservoirs are also less full than usual for this time of year, with storage levels dropping quicker than expected.

While the decision has not been taken lightly, proactively introducing a temporary use ban will help to protect the environment as the hot, dry weather is expected to continue through the summer.

Over recent months, Anglian Water’s operational teams have worked 24/7 to maximise water production and supply, move it around the network to places in greatest need, and fix more leaks as quickly as possible.

Dr Geoff Darch, head of strategic asset planning for Anglian Water, said: “This year has been exceptionally hot and dry and we're already into the third heatwave of the summer.

"Understandably customers have wanted to stay cool and have fun in the sun, and our teams are working 24/7 to keep taps flowing across the region, but the unrelenting conditions are placing the environment and water supplies under increasing strain.

"Every day of sustained hot weather increases the challenge of balancing supply and demand, and we are now at the point where we need to ask customers to help by hanging up the hosepipe, letting lawns go brown, cars go dirty and using water even more wisely to help protect the environment and ensure water remains available for all customers.

“As the driest region in the country, and the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, Anglian Water is well versed in preparing for periods of prolonged dry weather and we invest hundreds of millions every year to build our region’s resilience against the challenges we face – investments such as installing 1.5m smart meters, our mammoth 300km strategic interconnecting pipeline, which is already delivering huge benefits for drought resilience in Ipswich and Colchester, and replacing 1,000km of water mains to reduce leaks and bursts.

"Because of similar investments in previous years, we haven’t needed to implement a hosepipe ban for more than a decade.

“Implementing a temporary use ban for our customers has been a very difficult decision to make and one which we have not taken lightly but protecting supplies to our customers and protecting our region’s precious environment in the face of such unusually hot conditions and high demand means doing everything we can to limit our non-essential water use as much as possible.

"We are grateful for everyone’s support.”

Fixing leaks

Geoff said: “We recognise fixing leaks is one of the most important things to our customers, and we have one of the lowest leakage levels in the UK as a result of years of focus in this area, recognising the dry region we serve.

"Nonetheless, we’ve upped the teams working on this throughout the spring.”

Anglian Water continues to plough more resources into finding and fixing leaks in its vast network – which could stretch to Sydney and back if put end to end.

It says it is using innovative techniques like drones and AI to locate leaks, and has a bigger team than ever before to drive leakage rates down.

This includes more boots on the ground with teams redeployed from other work to this priority – this is all on top of the company’s already industry-leading day-to-day leakage work.

Planning for climate change

Geoff said: “Weather like this highlights the need for other sources of water supply, which is why Anglian Water is planning well into the future to ensure supplies are there for our rapidly growing population for generations to come, whilst protecting the environment.

"Massive infrastructure upgrades are also underway, such as our strategic pipeline stretching from Lincolnshire to Essex and our plans for two new reservoirs – one in the Fens, with the latest consultation results now published, and one in Lincolnshire.

"Other solutions such as desalination and water reuse are also in the pipeline.”

Temporary use ban detail

Under the terms of the ban, there will be a small number of exceptions to protect jobs, livelihoods and those who are most vulnerable.

Customers can still water their gardens and grow their own fruit and vegetables if they use a watering can instead of a hose or sprinkler.

At present, the ban will only apply to the domestic use of hosepipes for things like gardening, washing cars and windows, and filling paddling pools or hot tubs.

A temporary use ban can only be applied to domestic customers, rather than commercial customers.

However, Anglian Water has been urging businesses and non-household customers to do their bit too in support of residents by being mindful of the warm weather and using water wisely, for example, by not washing commercial vehicles.

Customers can ask questions and find out more about how the ban will affect them on the Anglian Water website.