Drying up

Indeed, since that time, Britain has also endured an unusually severe winter with heavy snow, which should have added even further to reservoir levels.

A glance at the figures reveals that, while rainfall levels in north-west England have, indeed, been below average in recent months, they have been only one per cent below what could be expected since the beginning of October last year.

In other words, the present spell of dry, settled weather would have to continue for much longer before United Utilities could claim that anything unusual was happening.

The suspicion has to be, therefore, that the water company is merely playing safe, exaggerating the present threat in an attempt to get users to show far greater care.

For if hosepipe bans really were imminent, householders in Lancashire and Cumbria would be justified in asking questions of United Utilities – such as what the company has done to minimise leakage, which all water firms say is now much less of a problem than in 1995 when badly maintained pipes aggravated the effect

of the last major drought.

For, in the end, water conservation must be a partnership and, if householders are being asked to make sacrifices, they are justified in demanding the fullest possible information in return.