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United Utilities Requesting Water From Lake District

Water supplier United Utilities is so concerned about an impending severe water shortage that it’s submitted three drought applications requesting to increase the amount of water it takes from three Lake District water sources – Ullswater, Windermere and Ennerdale Water.

 

Exceptionally little rainfall has resulted in very low storage levels in Ennerdale Water and there is now the risk of a serious deficiency where public water supplies are concerned. Water companies are only able to make these drought applications if an exceptional shortage of rainfall has been seen and if public supplies are therefore put at risk.

 

Environment Agency drought manager Jim Ratcliffe explained that because of prolonged dry weather in the north-west of the UK, the water supplier is now requesting to extract more water from the lakes than previously allowed, with the previous limit put in place to maintain water levels that protect wildlife, ecology and the environment.

 

“We are currently checking whether we have all the information we need to begin to determine these applications. Any drought permit would only be issued to United Utilities after public consultation and a review of all the available hydrological data. The water resources situation could also improve if demand for water reduces or if enough rain returns to replenish supplies,” he went on to say.

 

United Utilities’ water services director Martin Padley made further comments, saying that the company hasn’t taken the decision to make these drought applications lightly and it’s now working alongside the Environment Agency to make sure that supplies are protected for both the environment and customers.

 

Businesses can certainly start doing their part as well to help protect our water supplies, particularly at the moment when the hot weather has had such a drastic impact on the amount available. Without the right kind of rain, supplies look set to dwindle even further and the Met Office is now saying that the UK looks set for temperatures of almost 36 degrees C this week… so it doesn’t look as though our supplies will be replenished any time soon.

 

Water conservation consultants like H2O Building Services can help you reduce the amount of water you waste, which will help protect supplies and also have the added bonus of reducing your water bills at the same time.

 

Prioritising early water leak detection is a must and we can certainly help you with this. If you don’t spot leaks quickly enough, they can easily build up over time and end up wasting huge amounts of water and costing you an awful lot of money, not just because of water wastage but also because of the amount of potential damage that escaping water can do to your site.

 

There are also other ways you can conserve water and reduce your usage, whether you want to opt for rainwater harvesting or start looking into water recycling. To find out any more about any of the above, get in touch with us today.

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