Another hosepipe ban has been announced for England as the drought continues. South West Water said its 1.7 million customers in Cornwall and a small part of Devon will not be allowed to use a hosepipe from Tuesday, August 23.
It is the first time the water company has had to issue a ban in 26 years but said it has taken the action to 'protect our precious water' and said it had no choice. Three water companies – Welsh Water, Southern Water, and South East Water – have all imposed hosepipe bans, while Yorkshire Water has announced a ban will start on August 26 and Thames Water is planning one in the coming weeks.
A statement on the South West Water's website said: "We’ve done our best to avoid this ban. We’ve increased the amount of water we can store - doubling it since the last drought in 1976.
"We’ve opened reservoirs, installed a new borehole, and improved the way we can move water across the region to help keep everyone’s taps running. At the same time, we’ve reduced the amount of water lost through our own pipes.
"In the last two years we’ve doubled the amount of leak detection staff and now fix about 2,000 leaks a month. 30% of leaks happen on customer supply pipes, we've offered to fix these leaks for free. But all of this hasn’t been enough."
An official drought was declared in eight areas of England on Friday by the National Drought Group (NDG), which comprises representatives from the Government, water companies, the Environment Agency (EA) and others.
Dan Stroud, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said that despite the forecast of intense showers over the next few days, it is unlikely to help the drought.
“It will help a little but to be honest really, it’s almost the wrong sort of rain,” he said. “What we’re likely to see is some heavy, intense downpours. With the ground baked so dry, it’s very difficult for the ground to actually absorb the water very quickly.
“So what tends to happen in these circumstances is the water runs off and we can potentially get some surface run-off issues, so some flash floods.”
