Yorkshire Water warns Harrogate residents that the region's drought is still a problem despite rainfall
Yorkshire Water has warned that the weekend’s rain storms were not sufficient to change the overall picture on the region’s worst drought for years.
Although the wet weekend provided some relief for dry ground, gardens and the region’s rivers, there will no change in the hosepipe ban introduced by the water giant following the driest and warmest spring on record.
Dave Kaye, director of water at Yorkshire Water, said: “Some of the rain has made it to reservoirs, reducing the amount stocks fell over the week.
"Crucially the rain has also replenished rivers and groundwater, meaning we can increase our abstraction from rivers and groundwater to reduce pressure on reservoirs.
"But, despite the rain over the weekend and early part of this week, the hosepipe restrictions remain in place in our region.”
The rate of increase in dwindling water supplies facing residents in Harrogate and across Yorkshire has at least slowed with reservoir stocks decreasing 1.8% over the last seven days
But stocks remain at 49.1%, still well below the 77.8% average for this time of year, in a downward trend that began in late January this year.
Yorkshire Water’s Dave Kaye said: “The rainfall over the weekend was certainly welcome.
"It had the triple impact of reducing demand from our customers, providing relief for the environment and making its way into the region’s rivers and reservoirs.
“While some parts of the region experienced more than 20mm of rain over the weekend, we’ve had five months of below long-term average rainfall in Yorkshire, so one weekend is not going to improve things to a level where reservoir stocks recover.
"We are still supplying more than 1.2bn litres of water to customers every day.”
This spring saw Yorkshire experience its driest and warmest spring on record, with only 15cm of rainfall between February and June - less than half the average expected.
In June, the Environment Agency officially declared a drought across the region.
Yorkshire Water could not indicate when the hosepipe ban would be lifted but said it was grateful to customers for their continuing efforts to reduce water usage.