A water firm has sought to reassure customers that a hosepipe ban won’t be necessary this summer following the wettest winter on record.
Anglian Water says a 30-year investment in drought resilience and securing water resources means taps will keep running for customers across the region, storing water when it is plentiful and save it for a not-so-rainy day.
Ian Rule, director of water at Anglian Water, said: “It’s clear from this winter that our climate is going to continue to change at an alarming rate meaning periods of drought and flood are going to become more common place. While we always welcome a wet winter to replenish our supplies – this winter has been extreme but it does mean we’re in good shape heading into this summer.
“We’ve known that the East likely to see the impacts of the climate emergency more keenly than anywhere else in the UK, and building resilience to climate change, as well as preparing for 720,000 new residents to move to our region, has been at the heart of our long-term planning since the 1990s.
“In fact it is one of the reasons – alongside driving down leakage to industry leading low levels - why we didn’t need to implement a hosepipe ban, unlike other parts of the UK, in the last long hot summer.”
Anglian Water takes water to supply customers from a 50/50 split between reservoirs and groundwater sources, known as aquifers. After the wettest 18 months on record and with 10 named storms since last autumn, the firm says both groundwater and reservoir levels are in a tip-top position for the year ahead – with reservoirs across the region being more than 90% full on average.
During the next five years, planning will also continue towards developing two new reservoirs - one in South Lincolnshire and another in the Fens, near Chatteris.
By the end of next decade, they will supply water to three quarters of a million homes.
