Isle of Wight households could soon be hit with a hosepipe ban – the first in over 10 years – in a bid to reduce the amount of water being used across the region.
Southern Water has this week applied for a drought permit due to the low water levels on the River Test near Southampton. If the Environment Agency grants the permit it means the utility company can continue to take water from the river, but must introduce measures to reduce usage elsewhere.
After a particularly dry 2022 with lower than normal levels of rainfall in the Winter and Spring, a Temporary Use Ban (TUB) is a very real possibility.
The news comes just days after 37c temperatures hit the Island, with the hot weather set to return by next weekend. It’s unclear when a hosepipe ban would likely come into force though.
A spokesperson for Southern Water has said:
“We do not anticipate the need for temporary use bans across the whole of our region in the coming months. However, we may require extra measures in certain areas where water is scarcer and the pressure on supply is greatest, such as Hampshire and the Isle of Wight”.
What restrictions would there be if a Temporary Use Ban was introduced?
Under a hosepipe ban you would not be able to:
- Water your garden using a hosepipe – this includes to water food crops at domestic premises or private allotments
- Clean a motor vehicle using a hosepipe – this includes using a pressure washer
- Fill a swimming pool or paddling pool (unless you fill it with a hand-held container from a tap)
- Clean windows, walls, paths or patios of your home using a hosepipe
- Clean a private leisure boat using a hosepipe – this includes removing graffiti, unless as part of a service to customers
- Fill or maintain an ornamental fountain
The same southern water that has not invested in the infrastructure to stop sewage pumping into our coastal waters & the same company that has not invested into water storage or invested into desalination of sea water to be drinking water when the uk is surrounded by water , so the £90 million pound fine to southern water was meaningless money back to the government a slap on the wrist for southern water to keep skimming water payments to share holders as to investing into infrastructure of our water & sewage waste water systems & the same issues that was in the 1980s are the same issues as in 2022 , 40 years later
Water for Life slogan but whilst it all p*sses down the roads and contaminates the sea your not allowed to wash your car with it..! Crooks
And who will enforce that. How can people be banned from using hosepipes when they are paying for every bit of water they use on water meters unlike other parts of the country who still pay water rates.
Is this a ‘Knock On’ effect of closing the local reservoirs in the area?
Good point! Prime example cowes reservoir, full of water yet set to be drained and then used for houses! All of which will need water supplies Not rocket science really.
They closed 3 in Cowes area alone, One by the Health Clinic which now has planning permission, the big one just past love Lane and the smaller one which used to be in Moorgreen Road!
Why is it that the water companies can’t store enough water to see us through a couple of weeks of hot weather in the summer? The UK isn’t an arid, dry country – you just need to look at any aerial or satellite photograph to recognise that, so why can’t they store enough water to see us through? Ok, we may have had less than average rainfall during the winter but we’ve also had plenty of weeks where it rained non stop. Why isn’t that water stored ready for the warmer summer months which, and this shouldn’t come as a surprise, come around at this time every year?
Water companies in the UK do not invest in improvements – this is one of the issues when the Government privatised utility companies and other services. The next hike will be Railway companies hiking prices yet again as they need to change tracks due to the increase in hot weather. When you think of the number of floods we had early in the year there should be enough storage throughout the UK to meet the needs of the population. Open up more underground storage and surface reservoirs.
Every year I save all my clean sink used water (i.e. water not containing chemicals) and place it in a bucket which is then transferred to a watering can, have been doing all of that every summer, yet Southern water still hike massive charges for waste water. The hose I also use occasionally – more so lately due to hot weather and due to health reasons, but should the ban become compulsory will abide by it. BUT Southern Water need to recheck the waste water charges not all waste goes down the drain, shame we cannot have a metre installed on the waste outlet to prove it.
Commies! They should just increase the price of water, people will soon only use what they can afford. If you can’t afford water you shouldn’t get water. Simple.
Big government destroying the free market, again.
Water is a human right you cretin
Good one, next you’ll be saying housing is lmao
Not for people of colour !
what a selfish cruel comment you have made , it is the so called free market that is destroying our plant for selfish greed within your ideology 31 dislikes says it all about you & your cruelty
Does this mean the ‘British’ hand car wash will have to cease trading for a while?
As its anything BUT British I doubt it.
Ahhh there we are! the usual low IQ IOW commenter turning an article about potential water shortage into an unrelated and racist comment.
how exactly is it a racist comment??ITS ACTUALL FACT! says British on the sign…but all are foreign! thats fact lol
its totally misleading too say they are British if not
btw fyu…..nearly got ripped off on my car other month as i went in for £25 ish clean in n out…chap who couldnt speak a word of english ..apart from hand out saying £50 please! and kept trying
needless too say he got the correct £ 30
and took paint off a previous car with there jet wash. the boss isnt a nice guy!
I love how this is a conversation about the lack of decent infrastructure on the Island in terms of its water supplies and you make it all about being British. Nothing constructive or nuanced to say at all. For example you could say how Southern Waters parent company is half owned by holdings companies aboard, therefore not making it British. You did not say any of that though did you? Maybe we should start by making these companies “British” who own and run our infrastructure. Just look at Island Roads, apparently an Island based company but owned in part by the dictator of Oman 😀
Oops, I’ve stirred up the ‘woke brigade’, never meant to do that;)
You can attempt to justify your racism by whatever means you think, but a racist (You) is still a racist.
It’s not being woke it’s just pointing out you’re full of shit
Too many houses and too many people in UK
Exactly we should deport anyone with less than £250,000 to the mainland, just like Guernsey and Jersey!
I was under the impression that we paid for our water.
If it was a free service I could understand these draconian measures.
Maybe invest some of your profits.
I shouldn’t really complain as I once got a years free water because my meter was broken and it only took two visits to find that out.
Maybe it should be illegal to profit off water? Maybe it should be a public utility?
Blame Mrs Thatcher for that.
There used to be adverts on tv about dripping taps.
But now days the nanny state expects us to rince out every single yogurt pot to be put out for recycling !!!
Guess they’d better start repairing some leaky pipes then!
Unless it’s easier to pick on the public..
Certainly cheaper..
Quite sad when you read comments unrelated to water problems, just shows what a low IQ
a lot of the Island population has