Customers urged to use water efficiently to help maintain normal supplies

With forecasts of more dry and warm weather to come, following the driest start to the year across Scotland since 1964, the company is working to ensure its supply systems can cope with demand, which has increased during the recent dry weather, and is urging people to help save water by:-

• Using water efficiently in the garden and outdoor spaces by using a watering can instead of a garden hose where possible and avoiding using sprinklers

• taking shorter showers

• turning the tap off when brushing teeth

• using washing machines and dishwashers only when fully loaded

• and using a bucket and sponge rather than a hose to wash the car.

The public water supply is resilient, and Scottish Water is continuously monitoring the levels of storage throughout the country to maintain supplies, but there has been an increase in use by customers in the past weeks.

As a result, the amount of water put into the network across Scotland has had to be increased from mid-April by 150 million litres per day.

Average reservoir levels are at 81%, which is 10% lower than average for this time of year and 9% lower than this time last year. Rainfall for May so far has been even lower across most of the country, with a continuation of high pressure and very little rainfall forecast.

In addition, individually people are using an average of 178 litres of water per person per day, which is higher than in England and Wales where an average of 137 litres is used daily.

Scottish Water is working to ensure it can maintain public water supply to customers in parts of the country affected by increased peak water use and is using tankers to supplement normal water supplies in some parts of the country.

Alex Plant, Scottish Water’s chief executive, said: “We’re working hard to maintain normal supplies for all customers and would ask that they use water efficiently to protect this precious resource. We believe that a large part of the additional water use at the moment is in gardens so we would ask that customers are mindful of how much water they use there.

“Scotland’s climate is clearly changing and, as a country, we need to ensure we adapt both by investing appropriately in water infrastructure – which Scottish Water is doing - and ensuring we do what we can to use water more efficiently in our homes and businesses.

“Water is always worth saving and by taking simple steps to reduce the volume used around the home and garden we can make our country’s water go even further and help maintain normal supplies.”

Facts and tips can be found on social media to raise awareness about why water needs to be saved. Details can be found at www.yourwateryourlife.co.uk/save Scottish Water’s 'Water is always worth saving' campaign will be launched at the start of June, reminding the public that everyone has a joint responsibility to look after Scotland’s most precious resource.