Customers Urged to Use Water Efficiently to Help Maintain Normal Supplies

“A large part of the additional water use at the moment is in gardens, so we would ask that customers be mindful of how much water they use there.”

Alex Plant
Chief Executive, Scottish Water

We are calling on people to use water as efficiently as possible in homes and gardens and help the utility to protect resources and maintain normal supplies across the country.

With forecasts of more dry and warm weather to come, following the driest start to the year across Scotland since 1964, the company is working to ensure its supply systems can cope with demand, which has increased during the recent dry weather, and is urging people to help save water by:

• using water efficiently in the garden and outdoor spaces by using a watering can instead of a garden hose, where possible, and avoiding using sprinklers
• taking shorter showers
• turning the tap off when brushing teeth
• using washing machines and dishwashers only when fully loaded
• using a bucket and sponge rather than a hose to wash the car

Increased demand

The public water supply is resilient, and Scottish Water is continuously monitoring the levels of storage throughout the country to maintain supplies, but there has been an increase in water use by customers in the past weeks.

As a result, the amount of water we put into the network across Scotland has had to be increased from mid-April by 150 million litres per day. That’s enough to serve much of the population of the Greater Glasgow area with water every day.

Average reservoir levels across Scotland are at 81% and this is 10% lower than average for this time of year and 9% lower than this time last year.

It has been the driest start to the year (Jan-Apr) for Scotland as whole since 1964, with only 59% of long-term average rainfall over this period. 

Rainfall for May so far has been even lower across most of the country, with a continuation of high pressure and very little rainfall forecast until at least the May 22.

In addition, we are individually using an average of 178 litres of water per person per day, which is higher than in England and Wales where people use an average of 137 litres per person per day.

Scottish Water is working to ensure it can maintain public water supply to customers in parts of the country affected by increased peak water use and is using tankers to supplement normal water supplies in some parts of the country such as: Gullane and Aberlady in East Lothian; areas north of Aberdeen such as Potterton, Middleton Park, and Belhelvie; Maybole, Turnberry and Maidens in South Ayrshire; Kippen and Balfron in west Stirlingshire; and the Strathpeffer area in Ross-shire.

We are also taking other action in some parts of the country including supplementing borehole supplies from the River Spey by pumping water directly from the river to maintain normal supplies in Moray.

Alex Plant, Scottish Water’s Chief Executive, said: “We’re working hard to maintain normal supplies for all customers and would ask that they use water efficiently to protect this precious resource.

“We believe that a large part of the additional water use at the moment is in gardens so we would ask that customers are mindful of how much water they use there.

“Scotland’s climate is clearly changing and, as a country, we need to ensure we adapt both by investing appropriately in water infrastructure – which Scottish Water is doing - and ensuring we do what we can to use water more efficiently in our homes and businesses.

“Water is always worth saving and by taking simple steps to reduce the volume used around the home and garden we can make our country’s water go even further and help maintain normal supplies.”

Water saving advice

Scottish Water posts facts, tips and activities on social media to raise awareness about why we need to save water and more information on saving water is available at www.yourwateryourlife.co.uk/save

Scottish Water will launch its 'Water is always worth saving' integrated communications campaign at the start of June. The creative campaign will remind the public that we all have a joint responsibility to look after Scotland’s most precious resource and encourage people to be conscious of their water use, reducing usage and waste where possible.

The campaign will provide quick and easy advice on how customers can save water.

Multi-channel, the campaign will be across social media, press, radio, television and select outdoor sites. Scottish Water works with other organisations with an interest in this area and our Summer Community Engagement events programme will have a significant focus on being water-smart this summer.