Every drop counts - come rain or shine
Even when it’s raining, we need to use water wisely.
A year-round view of water resource
Generally, in summer there’s less rain and higher demand for water; in colder months there’s more rain and lower demand.
The challenge comes when there’s a really hot, dry summer. Unless there’s a particularly rainy autumn and winter, it’s hard to make up the shortfall.
Using just a little less water in the colder months helps water resource to recover, so we can start next summer with the reservoirs as full as possible.
Summer 2025 was exceptionally hot and dry
We had a very warm and dry summer this year, with higher-than average sunshine hours for all three summer months. August received just 62% of the average monthly rainfall.
This led to dry fields and gardens, and even wildfires in some places. In Bristol, reservoir levels fell as a result of the dry weather, with total storage falling to under 40%.
Climate change is making hot, dry summers more common. In the last decade, the number of days above 30C has trebled compared to the 1961-1990 average.
Our action on water resilience
Water quality and resilience is one of our key priorities. As well as reducing the amount of water lost to leaks, we’re investing in the network so we can store more water.
We use innovative systems to transport water to where it’s needed. Our future plans include building the Cheddar 2 reservoir, which will be a vital strategic resource.
Tough on leaks
We have an ongoing programme to find and fix leaks, which helps to reduce water waste. We’re also investing in parts of the network to make them more leakproof.
We don’t only help with leaks on our parts of the network – if you find and repair a leak on your home’s pipework, you might be able to claim a contribution from us.
