Residents across the Isle of Wight will be banned from using hosepipes from next Friday (10th July) as Southern Water introduces emergency restrictions following the warmest Spring on record and a prolonged spell of hot, dry weather.
The Temporary Use Ban, which comes into force at 00:01 on Friday, will prohibit customers from using hosepipes for activities including watering gardens, filling paddling pools and washing cars.
Southern Water says river levels in the River Test, which supplies most of the drinking water used in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, have fallen to critically low levels and are now around 25% below what would normally be expected for this time of year.
Tania Flasck, Director of Water Operations at Southern Water, has said:
“We’re working round the clock to keep taps flowing and protect the River Test, which is at a critically low level following recent hot weather.
“While the hosepipe ban comes into force on 10th July, we’re asking customers to start reducing their water use now, to help protect one of the region’s precious chalk streams and some of the rarest habitats on earth.”
The company says the decision follows England’s warmest spring on record and a record-breaking heatwave, with forecasts suggesting further hot and dry weather is on the way.
Since January, Southern Water says it has found and repaired 2,840 leaks across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, saving around 27 million litres of water each day. Teams are also using drones, smart technology and specially trained dogs to help locate leaks more quickly.
Customers are being urged to swap hosepipes for watering cans or buckets, with Southern Water warning that a hosepipe can use up to 1,000 litres of water in an hour – roughly the amount one person uses in a week.
The company says exemptions will apply for some customers, including those registered on the Priority Services Register or WaterSure scheme with qualifying mobility or health needs, such as Blue Badge holders.
Here’s a thing. With the enormous bills they give us, why not spend some of the money towards building a reservoir, and maybe the flooding in the winter might be of use in the summer?
They made a loss of just under £100m last year, but they have to pay around £300m a year to service the near £6 billion debt. No money for anything, it’s a scandal.
We had 3 reservoirs, they chose to sell them off years ago.
and if Southern water had invested in underground reservoirs to catch all the torrential rain end of 25 beginning of 26 it would have bought their customers some time I pay my bills and I save water ,Southern is the company not keeping their end of contract so why should I keep mine?stop paying premium dividends to your investors and think about your customers and the fact the Climate is changing !.
Ye get stuffed ill still use mine fill up a can with it and pour it over everything as i would of done with a triggered hose pipe..what a stupid ban in 2026 decades of not building storage bills up 50 % or more pathetic.
swap hosepipes for watering cans or buckets…please explain to me the difference ???
There is no difference, the greedy B’stards want to
control us.
I have a better idea a Ban on water bills.
I am fed up paying for their Fcuk ups.
Dont forget your not allowed to fill your watering can from the hosepipe !!!
And this is called progress after they have shut down and closed off numerous reservoirs around the Island and then wonder why we have a water shortage and then have to ‘pipe’ it from the mainland!
It’s not like we didn’t expect this, but it’s extremely annoying given that not that long ago we were enduring floods everywhere on the Island. Had this water been properly harvested we may not be suffering an hosepipe ban now.
Then there is what Southern water is doing to our bathing water. Its a disgrace and a result of years and years of mismanagement and greed by Southern Waters shareholders!
More insulting to Islanders is we are now paying so much more for our water and getting a substandard service for that money!
Imagine if they hadn’t drained and sold off lot’s of reservoirs? There’s still a big, empty hole next to Cowes Medical Centre. Maybe, reinstate that?
the only thing they are trying to reinstate is the pipe at Bembridge ready to flood the Solent with even more sewage.
They have a cheek, if they had invested the money years ago they would not be in this position! Last week they renamed the bonuses & paid the CEO £435.000 calling it an Allowance this absolutely stinks of corruption she did not deserve that when they are failing abysmally it’s disgusting, the unfairness of it all. Now our chalk stream in Southampton is being drained by them. All these extra people in UK can you see where we are going with this.
10th July again, funny that its the same date, every year since 2019