When the temperature rises, it’s only natural to think about water supplies. We understand why, and we’re working hard to keep everyone’s taps flowing – not just this summer, but for the years to come.
Find out why hot, dry weather puts pressure on water supplies, what we’re doing to prepare, and how customers can help make water go further.
What you need to know
Your summer questions answered
Let’s answer the second bit first. Right now, there is no hosepipe ban in place for Severn Trent customers. We’ve not had one in our area since 1995, and of course we’d like that to continue. That’s why it’s important that we all work together to protect our water supplies.
A hosepipe ban (officially called a Temporary Use Ban or TUB) is when a water company temporarily restricts how customers can use water. It is designed to protect drinking water supplies during very dry weather. Some water companies in other areas have brought bans in recently.
Normally a ban means households can’t use a hosepipe or similar device to water gardens or plants, fill paddling pools or hot tubs, or clean cars, buildings or patios. People risk a fine from the courts of up to £1,000 if they ignore the ban.
Yes we are – in fact, up until 2030 we plan to spend almost £15 billion on your water and wastewater networks. That’s about £8 million a day, on average, every single day.
For your water that means new and more resilient sources, enough new water mains to stretch from Birmingham to Berlin, new and upgraded treatment plants, and the latest technology to find and fix leaks more quickly.
We don’t want anyone to worry about water, which is why we’re investing so heavily to make sure we can rely on our supplies for decades to come.
But there are some things we need to plan for:
Rest assured, we’re aware of the challenges and we’re planning for them.
Getting your water, whether it’s from a reservoir, river or underground borehole, is just the first part of a long process.
From source to your tap, every drop of water can take around 12 hours to be treated, checked and delivered. Reservoir technicians, network engineers, water quality experts and treatment teams all play a role every day and night.
During hot weather, people naturally want to use more water, so demand rises sharply at the same time as nature is struggling to recharge supplies.
So the reason we need to be mindful during dry, warm weather is twofold: not only is there less in the supply, but also there’s a lengthy process for it all to go through to make sure you can rely on its quality.
First of all, in normal times of course we’d want you to be able to use your water – as you’re paying for it. But when the weather is like it has been, using it more carefully just helps to make sure we can treat and supply enough for everyone.
Turning to bills, no-one likes to see rising bills and we understand why you’re unhappy.
In our case, the bill rises are there to help us fund nearly £15 billion in improvements to the water and waste networks up to 2030. That’s the equivalent of spending about £8 million a day, every single day, in improving your service.
We have already raised money from our shareholders to start this work, so the burden doesn’t fall completely on Severn Trent customers. But as a result of this investment you’re going to get networks fit for the future, less impact on the environment, and support for those customers who need it.
We’re asking people to make small changes to their use over summer to protect everyone’s supply. Small everyday choices can really make a difference when lots of people make them together - especially in summer when demand is highest. Being mindful of how we all use water, and avoiding unnecessary waste, all help to protect water for the future.
In our area, reservoirs are just one of the places we get water from. Depending on where you live, the water coming out of your local treatment plant might instead have come directly from a river, or even from underground boreholes.
Taking water from a mix of sources helps us cope better during dry periods. It also means we can move water around the network, so areas with stronger supplies can support those where water is under more pressure.
Reservoirs are an important part of long-term planning, but they are only part of the answer. We also need to make the most of groundwater, rivers, treatment technology and the pipes that move water around our region.
Last year, for instance, our brand-new Witches Oak plant at Church Wilne in Derbyshire came on stream. It adds another 90 million litres a day to our network, with no new reservoir, simply by using green technology to tap into other sources we couldn’t use before.
And instead of building new reservoirs, we can often upgrade them so they can hold more. At Draycote Water in Warwickshire, for example, right now we’re raising the top level so it can hold an additional 1.4 billion litres, giving us more capacity for longer.
So in summary: yes, reservoirs are in our long-term planning. But for our region, they’re not the only option – they’re part of the picture – and there’s lots of other things we’re doing already that are making a positive impact..
The simple answer is, we are. Leaks now are the lowest they’ve been – some 40% lower than the 1990s. We’re now fixing a leak on average once every 15 minutes across our network. And on average we can get a leak fixed in just 3.9 days – only three years ago this took 7.7 days. We’re beating our targets for sorting out leaks, meaning there are hundreds of millions of litres more kept in the system now compared with 2020. But we have more to do.
We send billions of litres of water out under pressure through about 40,000km of pipes every day. It’s one of the largest networks in the UK. And while some leaks are inevitable in something this big, we’re investing record sums to find and fix leaks faster than ever.
Sometimes you might see a visible leak and wonder why we haven’t fixed it more quickly. There can be a number of reasons:
What we’re finding now is that about a third of all water lost through leaks comes from customer-owned fittings, like your supply pipes, loos, taps and showers. A leaking toilet, for example, can waste 300 litres a day. Lots of people are really good at spotting leaks at home and getting them fixed – thank you – and here are some tips that can help.
Take a look at our household leaks tips and see if you can help save more water.
Desalination – turning salty sea water into something we can drink – isn’t a new idea. It’s been used on a small scale for hundreds of years, especially in sea-going ships. More recently, some countries, particularly in the Middle East, have started to use desalination to help boost water supplies for their residents.
There are still some issues – it’s expensive, can use a lot of energy, and produces large amounts of brine which can damage the environment. But as more places across the planet face water shortages, there will certainly be more work in this area to try and make it more appealing.
As for Severn Trent, we’re an inland region with no access to the shoreline, so desalination isn’t a priority for us at the moment. But we’re keeping an eye on developments.
What you can do to help
Small changes at home can make a real difference during hot, dry weather. Using a watering can instead of a hosepipe, fixing dripping taps, checking for leaking loos and reporting leaks you spot in the street all help protect supplies for everyone.