SOUTH West Water has announced it will be introducing temporary restrictions on hosepipe use for customers in Mid Devon and parts of East Devon including Tiverton, Cullompton, Bampton, Honiton, South Molton, Dunkeswell, Axminster and Lyme Regis, due to current exceptionally high levels of demand in the area.

The Crediton area is not, as yet, included.

The temporary restrictions will come into effect from 12pm (noon) tomorrow, Tuesday, July 14, however, South West Water is asking customers to follow the restrictions immediately to help protect water supplies during this current period of very hot and dry weather.

This means that customers are asked not to use hosepipes for watering their gardens, washing cars, patios and boats, or filling swimming and paddling pools.

The decision follows two extreme heatwaves in the last three weeks which continues to drive exceptionally high demand across the region, but particularly in this area.

South West Water’s teams have been staffing the local water treatment works 24 hours a day for more than three weeks to make sure it is consistently operating at full capacity, however, the two recent extreme heatwaves have increased demand for water in the region by around 5.4 million litres every day, placing significant pressure on the local drinking water supply network.

On Friday, the Met Office revealed that temperatures of 35°C or higher have now been recorded in May, June and July of the same year for the first time in the UK weather record, with heatwave conditions set to continue into the coming week.

South West Water’s teams have been working around the clock on a range of interventions to maintain reliable supplies in the area. These include tankering to add water to the network, rerouting water around our network, additional resources for fixing leaks and asking businesses with high water use to reduce usage where possible.

During the heatwaves South West Water has:

• Deployed additional tankers to transport water into the network from wider areas

• More than doubled the number of leak detection workers and repair teams working around the clock to repair leaks in the area, preventing around 3.5 million litres of water loss a day

• Made adjustments to reroute water into the network from surrounding areas under less stress.

David Harris, South West Water’s Managing Director for Water Services, said: “The extreme hot weather over the last few weeks has resulted in exceptionally high demand on our drinking water network in Mid Devon and parts of East Devon.

"Through the ongoing 24/7 efforts of our local team, our local water treatment works is continuing to produce water at its maximum capacity and we’ve been doing everything we can to protect water supplies in the area for our customers.

“The decision to restrict hosepipe use is never taken lightly as we know how important it is for our customers to enjoy water wisely during hot weather.

“We will continue to monitor our demand levels daily and as soon as we see demand return to normal for this time of year, allowing our treatment water supply network to recover, we will lift the restrictions.”

For more information about how the restrictions will affect them, SWW customers can visit: www.southwestwater.co.uk/hosepipe-ban