Bristol Water has promised there will be no hosepipe bans or other water restrictions in the city despite the current heatwave. Yesterday, Bristol recorded its highest ever temperature of 35.3C, with highs of 33C expected today as the Met Office's amber health warning remains in place.
But Bristol Water, which supplies about 500,000 homes and businesses in the city and surrounding area, has said it will not be limiting supply to water. Often during hot weather, higher demand for water creates supply problems for companies, and there have been warnings in Bristol there could be lower pressure levels because of the heatwave.
But in a post on their website, Bristol Water said: "Thanks to extensive data modelling & projections, our forecasts indicate that we will not need to impose hosepipe bans or any other restrictions in 2022.
Read more: Bristol fountains run dry as heatwave scorches city
"With our 25 year water resource plans, we plan for the long term to ensure we meet the needs of our growing population and our integrated network gives us the ability to use a range of sources of supply, including reservoir storage when river flows are low."
On BBC Points West last night (July 18), Bristol Water's head of customer experience Sue Clarke confirmed that this was the company's position. "We're not putting any restrictions in place for water usage and we have no plans to do so at all this summer," she said.
However, the Bristol Water website says that people in Bristol should still be careful with the amount of water they use, especially with temperatures rising to unprecedented levels because of the climate crisis.
"Climate change is making it harder to accurate predict and model water usage," the website said. "We always ask customers to think about their water usage – this saves water, protects our beautiful environment and helps keep bills down."
The last time water restrictions were imposed in the areas which Bristol Water supplies was in 1990, when a hole in the bottom of the Gloucester and Sharpness canal led to a hosepipe ban, according to the Bristol Water website. And the last hosepipe ban due to droughts in the region was in 1976 during the famous two-month heatwave that saw temperatures peak at 35.9C in Britain.
This was considered unusual, as the average maximum temperature in July in the 1970s was 18.7C, while in the 2010s it was more than 20C. Temperatures in the country today are expected to reach 41C, and in Bristol it is expected to hit 33C.
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