Dry weather update

Who's affected?

The affected area spans across Mid-South Ceredigion, parts of North Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. It covers 32,000 properties from Llanon, Llangwyryfon and Cwm Ystwyth in Ceredigion, down to Crymych, Llanfyrnach and Nevern in north Pembrokeshire and covers parts of north Carmarthenshire down to Farmers, Pencader and Hermon.

To find out if your area is affected, please use this postcode checker.

Where does the water for this area come from?

The area’s water network is supplied by the Teifi Pools reservoirs on the western edge of the Cambrian Mountains and water abstracted from the river Teifi at Llechryd.

Moving water from reservoirs in different areas of Wales to supply the region isn’t practical, due to the typography of the area and the difficulties and cost involved with pumping large volumes of water across country.

Why is this happening?

These reservoir levels are now around 28% lower than last year and this means the area is in Drought. The Teifi Pools reservoirs have only seen 37% of the expected long-term average of rainfall between February and April.

The peaty ground around these reservoirs retains water and is slower than other areas to release water back into the environment. Rainfall over the past two weeks has done little to improve the situation here.

The recent intermittent rainfall has not been enough to make a difference to reservoir levels.

Temporary Use Ban (Hosepipe Ban)

A Temporary Use Ban (TUB) or as it’s more commonly known a ‘hosepipe ban’ means you won’t be allowed to use a hosepipe to undertake certain activities around your home.

Under the TUB restrictions, the use of a hosepipe, including using sprinklers, dripper hoses, automatic irrigation systems and similar devices, is not allowed for the following activities:

Prohibited Uses

The use of a hosepipe, including using sprinklers, dripper hoses, automatic irrigation systems and similar devices, is prohibited for the following:

1. Watering a garden using a hosepipe
2. Watering plants that are in an outdoor pot or in the ground, under cover on domestic or other non-commercial premises using a hosepipe
3. Drawing water, using a hosepipe, for domestic recreational use
4. Cleaning a private motor-vehicle using a hosepipe
5. Cleaning a private leisure boat using a hosepipe
6. Cleaning walls, or windows, of domestic premises using a hosepipe
7. Cleaning paths or patios using a hosepipe
8. Cleaning other artificial outdoor surfaces using a hosepipe
9. Filling or maintaining a domestic swimming or paddling pool
10. Filling or maintaining a domestic pond using a hosepipe
11. Filling or maintaining an ornamental fountain

Note that customers can still undertake the above activities if they use mains water from a bucket or watering can; or use water that is not sourced from the mains such as grey water, rainwater from a water butt through a hosepipe, or private boreholes for example./p>

What happens during this phase?

As a drought has been declared for your area, we are taking further action to save and supply water, including introducing usage restrictions – Temporary Use Bans.

What we are doing:

• We’re implementing a Temporary Ban on certain uses of water
• Preparing for use of additional schemes to get extra water into supply
• Increasing our communications activity
• Continuing all previous supply activities
• Applying for drought orders and drought permits to either further restrict customer usage of water or to take more water from the environment
• Further increase in work to find and fix leaks

What we’re doing to protect supplies

Our teams are working hard to ensure we’re taking every step possible to maximise water efficiency across our operating areas including:

• Leakage detection and fixes to cut the amount of water that is lost from the network. Teams are working across the country fixing leaks as quickly as they can. Our teams are currently fixing around 700 leaks every week and customers can help by reporting any leaks to us. Over the next five years, we will reduce leakage by a quarter and we’re spending around £400m on pipe replacement and leakage repairs to support this ambition.
• Increased water storage.
• Rezoning and using tankers to move water to areas in high demand.
• Ongoing work to upgrade our network.
• Increased water production at our treatment works to move water around the system to keep the levels topped up where demand is highest.