Thames Water isn’t ruling out hosepipe bans and is urging households to cut down water usage
The water company isn’t ruling out hosepipe bans this Summer
Thames Water is urging households to cut down on their water usage amid growing concerns of a drought this summer.
The Environment Agency has recently warned of a "medium" risk of summer drought and is also forecasting that the UK may struggle to meet water demand in 25 years.
Despite the recent rainfall this week, it comes after the driest Springs in almost 70 years.
Speaking to Greatest Hits Radio, the water supplier says they cannot rule out the possibility of a hosepipe ban this summer.
Andrew Tucker, Water Demand Reduction Manager at Thames Water, said: “Mother Nature is pretty powerful, so we can't control her. So, we’re dictated by how much rainfall we get and that's why we need to sort of plan for those scenarios.
“We can't rule anything out but at the moment, we're not planning that.”
According to research by Thames Water, the South East of England gets less annual average rainfall than Sydney, Rome & Lisbon.
They also say that two thirds of households have already reduced water usage in the past year to save money and help the environment, but three in ten have increased water consumption
Mr Tucker is also sharing advice to help save water which can help households save money on their bills.
He says, “Saving water at home is so easy. It's the simple stuff.”
“It's the outside water that adds a lot of extra pressure on the system, right when you don't want to have that extra water use, and that's things like paddling pools and watering lawns and sprinklers and pressure washers and car washing.”
He added: “Look for a leaky loo, which is the constant dribble into the bowl of the loo because that on average double’s an entire family's daily usage.”
“And a simple one is to take two minutes off your shower. If it's an average shower, you might be saving another 20 litres of water per person and that really adds up across the year.”