Our reservoir levels are in excellent shape at over 95% capacity with many at 100% and actually topping over right now.

This is despite only seeing 17% of the rainfall we would expect in February, and is down to the hard work of our operational teams over the winter months, the millions of pounds we have spent moving water around our network and the outstanding response from our customers in thinking about their water usage through last year’s exceedingly hot and dry summer. 

We know how important reducing leakage is to our customers and also in protecting our raw water supplies, and are pleased to share we will once again hit our leakage reduction target for the fifth consecutive year – making that 11 of the last 12 years in total – and keeping us well on track to halve the amount of water lost through our network by 2045.

The percentage of water lost through our pipes is now down below European average levels at 16%, although the amount lost through customer owned pipes is unfortunately increasing and is now at 7%, so we are accelerating our meter rollout to support customers in identifying these issues early, and helping to protect their homes, gardens and driveways. 

While our water stocks are in a very good position – despite the hot summer and freeze-thaw events over the winter – it is exceedingly important that we all continue to think about the ways that we use water.

We haven’t had to put a hosepipe ban in place in our region for nearly 30 years - since 1995 - and if we all continue to work together, there’s no reason to believe that we will need one in 2023, but we will be counting on our customers to use water wisely should we face another dry summer, in exactly the same manner as we did last year.