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Yorkshire Water has been assisting efforts to put out the moorland fires which have been raging over the bank holiday weekend.
Helicopters have been allowed to draw water from the Panorama reservoir on Ilkley Moor but the company insists this has not affected customer supply.
Fires broke out on Ilkley Moor as well as on moorland near Eldwick and also Marsden Moor near Huddersfield.
A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “We allowed the helicopters to draw water from Panorama reservoir situated on Ilkley Moor.
“This has had no impact on the supply of water to Graincliffe water treatment works as Panorama reservoir is a compensatory reservoir and the raw water main from it is used infrequently.
“We have also carried out some precautionary mains flushing to ensure no water quality incidents in this area occur, which has been confirmed as all clear.”
Fires have also spread to Saddleworth and crews have been tackling a blaze in Stalybridge in Greater Manchester.
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service said it was called to a moorland fire on Shutts Lane, Stalybridge yesterday evening (22 April).
An update from the force at 1.40am today reported “good progress” was being made to tackle the moorland fire and that “all visible flames and hotspots are extinguished”.
United Utilities has been contacted for comment.
In January, Yorkshire Water reported that a wetter than average end to 2018 helped boost the company’s reservoir levels, which had been impacted by one of the driest summers on record last year.
Earlier this month Lord Adonis, former chair of the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) accused the government of having “ducked” critical water infrastructure issues in a House of Lords debate focused on the draft national policy statement (NPS) on water, published towards the end of last year.
The Labour peer said: “The questions of whether we will or will not be building new reservoirs, will or will not have a national water grid or will or will not have mandatory water metering—three absolutely critical issues in terms of a water infrastructure plan—the government have ducked them all so far and have simply kicked them forward.”
Lord Gardiner of Kimble, parliamentary under-secretary in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), who proposed the debate and responded on behalf of the government, outlined that “more infrastructure” will need to be built but efforts will also have to be taken to reduce demand and increase supply through a “twin-track” approach.
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