OVER a month since South East Water introduced a hosepipe ban across the county – officials have decided to extend it due to ‘extreme heat currently affecting parts of Europe’.
The initial ban introduced in June was because the authority struggled to keep up with demand during a short heatwave.
2,500 residents across Crowborough, Rotherfield, Wadhurst and Mayfield suffered six days of water outages and South East Water blamed ‘working from home’ as the reason it couldn’t supply enough clean water.
This ban was reviewed today (28 July) and Hailsham News asked to hear the results from the meetings. A spokesperson from South East Water told us: “The prolonged period of dry weather leading up to the hottest June on record led to record-breaking water use, where we needed to supply up to an additional 138 million litres of water a day – equivalent to supplying four towns the size of Maidstone or Eastbourne.
We were left with no choice but to introduce the temporary use ban to bring demand down to maintain supplies. We have been closely monitoring our position, looking at several indicators to determine the appropriate time to lift the restrictions.
This has included looking at the current water demand levels as well as the longer-term picture for weather, and resource availability on a weekly basis.
Given the wider context of extreme heat currently affecting parts of Europe, we have approached our reviews with a sensible degree of caution. We want to protect the water supply for all our customers until the risk of another heatwave has passed.
This requires us to have a level of certainty that demand will not dramatically rise, as it did in June. Whilst the risk of a further sustained hot spell occurring this summer appears to be receding based on latest forecasts, we don’t yet have sufficient certainty, so the restrictions remain in place.”
Another review will take place on 4th August.
