A hosepipe ban is still in force one month in, as the heavy rainfall has not been enough to recover from the extreme drought from this summer.
Thames Water are still encouraging customers to use as little water as possible during the current hosepipe ban which was put in force one month ago.
A Thames Water spokesperson said: “We want to thank our customers for helping us to save water since we introduced the Temporary Use Ban last month.
"However despite recent rain and our ongoing hosepipe ban, there’s still much less water in our rivers than usual. This year has been one of the driest on record, with ten of the last twelve months experiencing below average rainfall.
"Our reservoir levels continue to remain below average and a lot more rain will need to fall to get our water levels back to normal.
"Our hosepipe ban is still in place to make sure there’s enough water to go around.”
According to Thames Water, rainfall is down 35% this year compared to the long-term average.
This week, reservoir levels were down 15% in London and a shocking 25% in Oxford compared to the long-term average.
When asked how much rain would be needed for the ban to be lifted, Thames Water said: “This will depend on the weather. We’ve had nearly a year’s worth of below-average rainfall and our rivers and groundwater need a lot of re-refilling.
"We need our autumn and winter months to give above average rainfall, so that our water reserves can get back to normal levels, ready for spring and summer next year.”
Ten of the last twelve months (September 2021 to August 2022) have experienced below-average rainfall with July been the driest since 1885 and only 46% lower than average rainfall in August making it the driest August since 2003.
Because of this, hosepipe bans remain in place for six water companies across the UK: Thames Water, Dwr Cymru, Southern, South East Water, South West Water, and Yorkshire Water.
"We’re working hard to fix leaks on pipes we’re responsible for and our aim is to reduce our leakage by 20% between 2020 and 2025.
"We’ve grown our workforce to over 200 repair teams, helping us repair 19% more leaks this August compared to last year and we are repairing over 1,000 leaks per week – whether they are visible or hidden below ground."
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