Northumberland residents urged to save water amid driest spring in decades and risk of water drought

The Met Office announced this week that it has been the driest start to spring in 69 years across England and the driest March since 1961. April saw the UK receive just half of its normal rainfall, with even less in the North East.

With warm weather forecast to continue at least over the next two weeks, and the Environment Agency confirming there is a medium risk of a drought this summer, Northumbrian Water is reminding customers to be mindful of their water usage when it comes to things like paddling pools, hot tubs and watering their gardens, in a bid to protect water resources and the environment.

A typical large paddling pool can use up to 3,200 litres of water, and a hot tub can use up to 1,500 litres – which is the equivalent of 882 standard-sized kettles – more than ten times most people’s average daily usage in one go.

Using a hosepipe for one hour can use 1,000 litres of water. However, keeping a water butt in your garden can collect up to 200 litres of water in a more environmentally friendly way.

Kieran Ingram, water director at Northumbrian Water, said: “The sunshine and prolonged hot dry weather means we have seen an increase in demand for water recently.

“Although we're used to managing demand, we still need customers to play their part by using water wisely, so that we can continue to manage supplies and keep the water flowing.

“We will continually monitor our stocks of water this over the dry period, but when large numbers of people start using things like hot tubs or paddling pools it can pull heavily on our resources and sometimes this means the water in our network is being used faster than we can turn it from raw water into drinking water.

“If you do decide to use things like these, make sure you get the best out of them, for example, if you’re using a standard paddling pool this weekend without chlorine, you can re-use the water afterwards to water your plants or wash your car.”

For full advice on how you can save water, go to: https://www.nwl.co.uk/summer