Bristol Water has no plans to restrict supplies to businesses in the city, even though the Environment Agency today declared a drought across the whole of the South West.
However, the company said its reservoirs are only 80% full at a time when it would expect them to be 97% full.
Rainfall in February and March was barely a third of what it should be – and there would now have to be rainfall of nearly 4ins a month for significant quantities of water to drain into the reservoirs.
This is highly unlikely since typically most rain falls in the autumn and winter and four inches a month would be way above the region's annual average.
A spokesman said: “The last two years have been the fourth driest in the past 160. Winter rainfall from November to March has been the lowest since 1975/76. These conditions have meant that our reservoirs effectively stopped refilling over two months earlier than usual.”
The first part of any restriction, he added, would be to focus on non-essential use. Only if reservoir water levels started to drop quickly would the company have to consider restrictions – and even then it would still be at least a fortnight before restrictions were imposed.
Garden centres are among businesses most likely to be affected by lack of water, particularly the sale of hosepipes. The spokesman said: “The key point is that we are trying get the message across to customers about how they can help save water – for example by using a watering can instead of a hosepipe in the garden. It is vital that everyone takes small, simple actions now to use water wisely at all times, not just in dry weather. This will help secure water supplies in the coming months and also help to protect the environment which is now under such stress.”
The company has been maximising use of groundwater sources and transferring large volumes of water from the River Severn over the past few months and is on target to achieve the lowest leakage rate in the company’s history, somewhere around 15% below the level set by the industry regulator Ofwat.
The first part of any restriction, he added, would be to focus on non-essential use. Only if reservoir water levels started to drop quickly would the company have to consider restrictions – and even then it would still be at least a fortnight before restrictions were imposed.
Garden centres are among businesses most likely to be affected by lack of water, particularly the sale of hosepipes. The spokesman said: “The key point is that we are trying get the message across to customers about how they can help save water – for example by using a watering can instead of a hosepipe in the garden. It is vital that everyone takes small, simple actions now to use water wisely at all times, not just in dry weather. This will help secure water supplies in the coming months and also help to protect the environment which is now under such stress.”
Its reservoirs are holding steady at an average of 80% full. That is 5% lower than at this time last year, and 16% below the company's guidelines. Chew Lake is 75% full (80% this time last year); Blagdon Lake is 87% full (90% this time last year) while Cheddar Reservoir is 90% full (94% this time last year). Closer to Bristol, the Barrow Reservoirs are 74% full (90% this time last year)
The spokesman warned that if the generally dry conditions continue over the next few months, reservoir storage will rapidly fall, reducing the water we will have available later in the year and make it difficult to refill reservoirs to a safe level in time for 2013.
