Yorkshire Water issues major update on hosepipe ban after weekend of rain

The company announced hosepipe restrictions from 11 July, after the driest and warmest spring on record.

At the time, the county’s reservoirs were sitting at 56 per cent capacity, when normally they would be 82 per cent full.

Despite the rainfall over the weekend, reservoir stocks have now declined to below 50 per cent, far lower than the 78 per cent average for this time of year.

Dave Kaye, director of water at Yorkshire Water, said: “The rainfall over the weekend was very welcome.

“It has the triple impact of reducing demand from our customers, providing relief for the environment and making its way into the region’s rivers and reservoirs.

“While some parts of the region experienced more than 20mm of rain over the weekend, we’ve had five months of below long-term average rainfall in Yorkshire, so one weekend is not going to improve things to a level where reservoir stocks recover, as we continue to supply more than 1.2bn litres of water to customers every day.

“Some of the rain has made it to reservoirs, reducing the amount stocks fell over the week. Crucially the rain has also replenished rivers and groundwater, meaning we can increase our abstraction from rivers and groundwater to reduce pressure on reservoirs.

“Despite the rain over the weekend and early part of this week, the hosepipe restrictions remain in place in our region.”

Yorkshire Water released photographs of four reservoirs across the county, which all appear to have significantly low amounts of water.

At Langsett Reservoir, near Barnsley, the dried-out bottom can be seen around much of the edge of the lake.

It’s a similar situation at Riding Wood Reservoir, near Holmfirth, where the stone bottom can be seen by the edges of the water.

While at Scammonden Reservoir, outside of Huddersfield, the intake tower could be seen well above the water level.

Baitings Reservoir near Ripponden appears almost empty.