Northumbrian Water is asking customers to keep using water wisely as the Environment Agency announces ‘prolonged dry weather’ status for the North East.
Over the past seven months the region has seen below-average rainfall, extreme dry periods and heatwaves, making it officially the driest spring and early summer since 1996.
And as the region has been trying to keep cool, the water company has seen demand shoot up by 20% and remain at extremely high levels all throughout this period.
Teams have been working all summer to keep water flowing, with additional staff on the ground finding and repairing leaks often caused by ground movement in the hot weather.
Despite these efforts, the increased levels of demand and very dry weather conditions have meant that reservoir levels are lower than they would normally be at this point in the year, which the company is closely monitoring and managing water around the region.
Keith Haslett, Water Director at Northumbrian Water, said “We are not anticipating the need for any restrictions on water usage this summer, however we are keeping a close watch on the situation and our teams are planning ahead for the rest of summer into Autumn, as the winter recharge will be important.
“As an environmentally responsible company, we are monitoring and carefully managing the resources we take from the environment and to help protect the region, we are encouraging our customers to use water wisely and preserve precious resources where they can. The smallest changes really do make the biggest difference.
“The teams are working incredibly hard to make sure that our reservoirs can recover over the autumn period, and this will help us to ensure that we can keep the water flowing for customers throughout winter and into next year.”
Northumbrian Water are working with the Environment Agency and other partners to protect supplies the best they can, to ensure that they keep the water flowing for customers and protect local rivers and the environment.
When announcing the change in status for the region, the EA highlighted the good work that the water company has been doing to not only protect supplies but the environment too.
In order to maintain the health of the region’s rivers, the Kielder Transfer Scheme has started – which will be moving around 30 million liters of water per day from Kielder reservoir into the River Wear.
The transfer, which started on Thursday 11th August, was the first time a Tyne-Wear transfer has been made in 16 years.
For advice and ideas on how to use water wisely, visit www.nwl.co.uk/summer, or follow our social media accounts.