First Wessex Water hosepipe ban since 1976 announced

Willoughby says the demand due to the extreme heat and dry weather has “far surpassed” the level of the 1976 hosepipe ban and the main challenge comes from moving water around the network quickly and efficiently.

Wessex Water bosses have told customers they are not at risk of running out of water, but said they had to take steps to conserve water now to minimise risk in the future.

“While we’re not running out of water for essential use, our challenge has been moving water through the network quickly enough to meet these record levels of demand,” said Jefferson.

“This also has an impact on our underground storage reservoirs, which normally replenish with treated water quickly.”

The company says it has invested more than £16m in water supply assets in the past three months alongside other measures, including working faster to fix leaks and asking larger users to limit use:

“Hang up the hosepipe and allow the grass to grow brown, it’s not dead its dormant,” said Willoughby.

“Turning off the tap when you brush your teeth and keeping the car dirty [can also make a difference].

“Its not all on our customers, we don’t want them to do all the heavy lifting, we as a company need to do our bit so we have teams working around the clock to maintain supplies.

“We’ve increased the number of staff finding and fixing leaks but the dry and hot conditions make leakages even more challenging.”