It has been the driest summer for 50 years. And the high temperatures, coupled with the lack of rainfall means that all over the country rivers are running dry and hosepipe bans are being introduced.

The situation is so serious in fact, that parts of South West, Southern and Central England and East of England move into Drought status.

The National Drought Group, made up of senior decision makers from the Environment Agency, government, water companies and key representative groups, joined by Water Minister Steve Double, met today (August 12) to discuss the response to the driest summer in 50 years and the continued action needed. The group discussed the current outlook and the associated risks and impacts and agreed to further collaborative work across sectors to balance water needs and conserve water.  

But in the area served by Bristol Water, there are currently no plans to introduce any kind of restrictions.

A Bristol Water spokesperson said: "We do not anticipate the need for any hosepipe bans or water supply restrictions in the Bristol Water supply area this year. This is due to our current reservoir storage and how together with our customers we're reducing the amount of water we use.

"We are carefully monitoring the situation due to below average rainfall this year and lower reservoir levels compared to normal. Rainfall in July was 41% of the average level, with no significant rainfall in August so far.

"Thanks to our forward planning and the flexibility in our water network, we can balance our stored resources in a way that helps us manage supplies during drier conditions like those we're currently experiencing. We also use artificial intelligence to manage our supplies in a way that cuts our energy use too, helping our environmental performance.

"It helps that we're recognised as a top performer in the industry when it comes to reducing leakage in our water network, which is down to our hard-working staff who detect leaks, high-tech monitoring, and schemes replacing old water mains. Switching more of our customers to water meters is another effective means of tracing and reducing water wastage."

Bristol Water operates four major reservoirs – Chew Valley Lake, Blagdon Lake, Cheddar and Barrow – the total combined reservoir storage capacity is around 38 billion litres. This is enough to fill Wembley ten times over.

Bristol Water also take water from the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, a small proportion (about 15%) comes from underground sources, such as wells, springs and boreholes.

Hosepipe bans in this area are rare. The last hosepipe ban due to droughts in our region was in 1975 and carried on until 1976 during an exceptional hot and dry period. However, the last time water restrictions were imposed in the Bristol Water supply area was actually 1990, although it wasn't down to drought.

In fact, the short hosepipe ban in 1990 was caused by a hole in the bottom of the Gloucester and Sharpness canal. The base of the canal collapsed, and as it supplies a sizable quantity of the water in our network, a short hosepipe ban was imposed whilst the canal was repaired.