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South East Water has imposed a hosepipe ban for customers in Kent and Sussex after demand surged during hot weather.
The company, which last imposed a ban in August 2022, said current demand for water “has broken all previous records”.
Over the past week, South East pumped 20% more water into its networks as customer usage spiked, which left clean water storage tanks very low.
The company said its treatment sites are working at full output to produce sufficient water to meet demand.
“This situation has developed much more rapidly than last year,” said David Hinton, chief executive at South East.
He added: “Despite asking for customers help to use water for essential uses only, regrettably we’ve now been left with no choice but to introduce this temporary use ban restriction to protect customers supplies across Kent and Sussex.”
Last year, six companies imposed hosepipe bans, but these began much later in the summer. In Cornwall and parts of Devon, restrictions still remain in place since August 2022.
With a long-term forecast for the rest of the summer looking dry, Hinton said: “We are very aware that climate change and other factors are increasing the frequency of these events and we are submitting proposals to our regulator, Ofwat to solve these issues.”
Restrictions will begin on 26 June for South East’s 2.3 million customers.
Anglian Water has also asked its customers to be considerate of their water use to make sure supply can keep up with demand. The company said it pumped an additional 200 megalitres into its networks – a 20% jump – on hot days in the past week.
The situation remains better than last year for much of the country, despite the dry start to the summer. Heavier than average rain earlier in the year replenished reservoirs and groundwater sources.
Last summer was the first in a decade that companies imposed temporary restrictions on water use as the majority of the UK experienced drought conditions.
The National Drought Group met with increased frequency and has continued to issue warnings to prepare for drier summers becoming normal as the effects of climate change add pressures to supplies.
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