Thames Water has calculated that the extra water being sprayed by gardeners in Oxford in a bid to ‘save their lawns’ could be adding as much as £855,000 to the city’s monthly water bill and filling up to 10 Olympic swimming pools with water every day.
Gardening experts insist that daily hose piping and sprinkling is unnecessary as a brown lawn is still healthy and will turn green again as soon as it rains.
With less rainfall than Istanbul, and only half as much as Sydney, Oxford and the south east is classed as ‘seriously water stressed’ by the Environment Agency.
Thames Water’s calculations are based on half of Oxford City Council households watering their lawns for 30 minutes per day. If 10 per cent of 55,400 properties watered for 30 minutes, nearly two Olympic swimming pools (three million litres) would be filled daily, costing £170,000 over 30 days.
The Oxford area has only received two thirds of the rainfall expected between February and June, causing groundwater and river levels to drop.
A hosepipe can use around 540 litres an hour – as much water as a family of four uses in a whole day. Gardens can stay “water hungry”, and with the current hot weather set to continue Thames Water is urging customers to be mindful of how much they are using.
“It’s green to be brown,” said Andrew Tucker, water efficiency manager for Thames Water. “Battling with this sun is unnecessary. Your lawn will bounce back and will be green again as soon as it rains.”
“We would always urge our customers to use water wisely, to reduce the stress on rivers and wetlands and keep bills down, including energy bills. Free water-saving devices are available to all our customers and can be ordered from our website.” he added.
The water company is offering a 50 per cent discount on water butts to collect rain water for all customers.
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