Drought Measures

A Temporary Use Ban (TUB) is necessary because:

• We need to align with the companies who supply our water, who have also introduced these measures.
• Exceptional high demand across the region has resulted in multiple water supply issues across our network.
• It’s an important way in which to reduce demand. They help us to maintain essential supplies for drinking and sanitation and give us time to treat and pump more water through the network.
• Despite asking for voluntary restraint, demand for water has remained high. We have to take action to ensure that there is drinking water available for all, including for our vulnerable customers and for essential uses.

Yes, there is evidence to support that introducing Temporary Use Bans (TUBs) does make a difference. If we all work together and reduce our water use, then water demand decreases and reduces the pressure on our water resources.

We have:

• Placed notices in local newspapers.
• Emailed all customers and/or texted them with information and a link to our website.
• Advised the water retailers, although at this stage businesses are not affected, we would ask everyone to find ways to help reduce the demand for water
• Written to the MP’s and councillors representing the communities we serve.
• Briefed our staff about the ban so they can let customers who contact us know.
• Created a dedicated website page www.iwnl.co.uk/homeowners/drought-measures to host useful information for customers and other water users.

It is likely that it will continue until we are confident that the demand for water has returned back to manageable levels. We will keep the position under constant review. This is a short temporary measure to help us in these very unusual circumstances.

We will publish a notice in newspapers.  We will also email and text our customers, and update our website.

The Temporary Use Ban (TUB) is primarily focused on restricting household water use, but it also includes certain non-essential activities relating to upkeep of grounds of public service buildings and non-commercial workplaces. For example, activities such as filling or maintaining an ornamental fountain, watering gardens or cleaning paths and patios using a hosepipe at a workplace will be restricted. However, premises that have ponds with fish and other wildlife are able to continue to use whatever they need to keep the environment healthy.

The Temporary Use Ban (TUB) does not impose restrictions on essential and commercial uses of water. For example, commercial window cleaners and car washes, or businesses that need water as part of their operations like pharmaceutical companies and zoos.

We are asking our customers to help us by abiding by the hosepipe ban and hope that they will. The Water Industry Act does give us powers to fine customers who ignore it up to £1,000. We hope it won’t come to that and everyone will play their part to protect our resources. Details of our enforcement policy can be found here.

We are encouraging everyone to do their bit and help us save water to protect our rivers. We all need to use water wisely and avoid the following activities:

• Watering a garden using a hosepipe
• Cleaning a private motor-vehicle using a hosepipe
• Watering plants on domestic or other non-commercial premises using a hosepipe
• Cleaning a private leisure boat using a hosepipe
• Filling or maintaining a domestic swimming or paddling pool
• Drawing water, using a hosepipe, for domestic recreational use
• Filling or maintaining a domestic pond using a hosepipe
• Filling or maintaining an ornamental fountain
• Cleaning walls, or windows, of domestic premises using a hosepipe
• Cleaning paths or patios using a hosepipe
• Cleaning other artificial outdoor surfaces using a hosepipe

Yes, there are, please view the full list here.

If you notice a neighbour, family or friend, in the affected areas, using water for the restricted activities please gently remind them of the restrictions in place and direct them to our website for more information.

People should not put themselves at risk unnecessarily. If you know someone who will be struggling to use a watering can, it would be great if you could offer them a helping hand.

Blue badge holders are automatically exempt from several restrictions, as are customers who are on our Priority Services Register (PSR). If you are not on the PSR, but feel that you should be, you can find out more and apply to join here.

For full details of what you can and cannot do please view our helpful document here.

You can use your hosepipe to clean animals and their areas, e.g. yards or stables. We would ask you to be as efficient as possible when you do this.

Yes. The restrictions that are associated with a Temporary Use Ban (TUB) cover the watering of gardens with a hosepipe, which does extend to cover allotments which are used to grow domestic food crops. Therefore, you should not water an allotment with a hosepipe.

However, there are still options available to customers to maintain their allotments whilst the restriction is in place, including a number of ‘exemptions’ that may help those with limited mobility. These include:

• If you are a Blue Badge holder, then you are automatically exempt from the restriction
• If you are on our Priority Services Register (PSR) then you are automatically exempt from the restriction   If you are not on the PSR, but feel you should be, you can apply to join and can find out more here.
• You may continue to water allotments with tap water by hand, using a bucket, or with a watering can.  You may also water allotments using rainwater from a water butt through a hosepipe.

The combination of factors experienced this summer are unprecedented, and even more severe than those experienced in the COVID-19 summer lockdowns. For England, it has been the driest 8 months since 1975/76, whilst rainfall for July has been at just 8%, combined with record breaking temperatures.

IWNL are proud of our leakage figures and work hard to keep this low. We have installed data loggers at most of our sites, which allows us to closely monitor leakage and fix leaks quickly.

In 2021-22 the IWNL leakage figure was 24.68 litres per property (per day), this compares well with the industry average value of 117 litres per property (per day) reported on the Discover Water site.

We really value customers reporting leaks to us, if you spot one please let us know – our contact details are here.

For essential water quality reasons, a very small amount of water gets used for flushing broken mains and leaks that we fix on our network and for keeping water turned over so it doesn’t stagnate. We also use small amounts of water in the laying and commissioning of new water mains and the ‘flushing’ of pipework to help improve the quality of the water supplied to our customers.

Prosecution is very much a last resort, instead, we are asking for people’s help as we are dealing with very unusual circumstances.

However, the Water Industry Act does give us powers to fine customers who ignore the ban, up to £1,000. Details of our enforcement policy can be found here.