With the heatwave set to continue across the North West, engineers from United Utilities are making sure that water supplies continue to meet unprecedented demand.
The water company said the record temperatures are setting new records for water consumption, with the region’s 3 million households and 200,000 businesses tapping into 1,958 million litres on Tuesday, 200 million litres more than usual.
The amount is the largest ever recorded in recent memory and experts are predicting the daily amount could top 2 billion litres later this week.
Highest demand is from urban communities where people having more showers and watering their gardens is thought to be the reason behind the surge.
United Utilities’ large integrated water pipeline network means supplies can be moved around the region to make more use of water from areas where more is available.
However, the record demand is prompting water company experts to urge people to go easy on the environment by following a few simple steps.
Dr Martin Padley, the company’s director of water and scientific services said:
“While our reservoirs are still more than three quarters full, as you’d expect, all this activity means we are sensibly putting well-rehearsed procedures in place to preserve water wherever we can and we would encourage others to do the same by reducing waste.”
With the UK government demanding a 50% reduction in storm overflow spills by 2029, the era of reactive management is over. Speaking in the House of Commons on 21 July 2025, then environment secretary Steve Reed said, “This Government will cut water companies’ sewage pollution in half by the end of the decade.”
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