Yorkshire Water has issued a hosepipe ban following months of hot dry weather and have threatened customers with up to a £1,000 fine for anyone who breaks the ban.
Yorkshire Water is the first major utility firm to introduce the ban meaning people will not be able to wash their cars, fill up pools or water their garden from Friday using a hosepipe, but can use buckets and watering cans.
Yorkshire Water’s director of water, Dave Kaye, said, “We need to take action now to help conserve water and protect Yorkshire’s environment.
“That means from Friday this week, people across Yorkshire will need to stop using their hosepipes to water their gardens, wash their cars or for any other activities.
“Introducing these restrictions is not a decision we have taken lightly, and we’ve been doing everything we can to avoid having to put them in place.”
He added, “Of course, we have seen a few periods of changeable weather more recently, which helped slightly with the water resources picture.
“But these have been followed by constant high temperatures and more dry weather, which causes increased water usage.
“We’re grateful to our customers, who have been saving water where they can this year already. It is really important that we all continue to do so.”
Kaye continued, “These restrictions are intended to make sure that we have enough supply for the essential needs of people across the region this year and next, as well as making sure we’re able to protect our local environment.
“With more dry weather forecast in the coming weeks, it is likely our stocks will continue to fall so we need to act now to maintain clean water supplies and long-term river health.
“Having restrictions in place also allows us to apply for drought permits from the Environment Agency, which means we can abstract more water from our rivers and reduce compensation flows out of our reservoirs so that we can continue to provide the water our customers rely on us for.”
