Yorkshire Water to have its first hosepipe ban in 27 years

YORKSHIRE Water is to have its first hosepipe ban in 27 years later this month.

The ban will come into effect on Friday, August 26 and it is unknown how long it will last for.

Yorkshire Water says the lack of rainfall means the measures are now "necessary" after the "trigger point" has been reached.

The company's director of water, Neil Dewis, said: “Parts of Yorkshire have seen the lowest rainfall since our records began more than 130 years ago.

"The hot, dry, weather means that Yorkshire’s rivers are running low and our reservoirs are around 20 per cent lower than we would expect for this time of year.

"We’ve been doing everything we can to avoid putting in restrictions but unfortunately, they’re now necessary as part of our drought planning.

“We’re grateful to our customers, who have been saving water where they can this summer. It is really important that we all continue to do so, to help protect our water resources and the environment.

He added: “We’ve been working hard in the background to balance our water stocks through our region-wide grid system (an investment made by Yorkshire Water after the last hosepipe ban in 1995/6) and reduce water lost from leaky pipes (we have reduced this by 50 per cent since 1995/6) - 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. 

“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.

“As we’ve now reached that trigger point, we need to make sure that we have enough supply for the essential needs of people across the region this year and next, as well as making sure we’re able to protect our local environment by limiting the amount of water we have to draw from the rivers.

"Our decision to introduce a hosepipe ban is based on the risk that water stocks continue to fall in the coming weeks and the need to be cautious about clean water supplies and long-term river health. 

“Having a hosepipe ban in place also allows us to apply for drought permits from the Environment Agency, which means we can abstract more water from our rivers and reduce flows out of our reservoirs so that we can continue to provide the water our customers rely on us for. 

“The ban will come into effect on August 26, and we’ll keep everyone updated on when it will end.” 

Activities covered by the hosepipe ban include watering a garden, cleaning vehicles, watering plants, filling or maintaining a domestic swimming or paddling pool, drawing water for domestic recreational use, cleaning walls or windows of domestic premises, cleaning paths or patios, and cleaning other artificial outdoor surfaces.