Reservoir 'half full' after hot, dry weather

A reservoir is just over half full following a "prolonged" period of hot and dry weather.

Hanningfield Reservoir, between Chelmsford and Wickford is just 52% full according to operators Essex and Suffolk Water (ESW), who said they do not expect significant rainfall until October.

In August, the firm implemented its first hosepipe ban in almost 30 years, describing the situation as "very unusual".

ESW, which also owns Abberton Reservoir, said their total water supply has dropped by a quarter since June, from 83% to 57%.

Currently, most of Essex is prohibited from using a hosepipe with Affinity Water and Anglian Water also introducing restrictions.

Katie Davis, head of water service planning at ESW, explained: "We haven't been able to take the water from the rivers to refill the reservoir."

She added that demand on the network has also increased as customers have been consuming more water due to the heat.

Across the whole of July, their reservoirs experienced 2mm of rainfall, 4% of what they would expect for the month.

To avoid issues in the future, the company is investing £66m to increase their "resilience" between 2025 and 2030, which includes pipe replacements and fixing leaks.

In 2015, it completed a £150m investment into Abberton Reservoir, expanding water storage for Essex by 15 billion litres.

A spokesperson said they are working "around the clock" to find and fix leaks and have brought in temporary teams to achieve this.

They added the hosepipe ban is partly in place to "protect our precious rivers and wildlife" as well as "safeguarding water supplies" during the hot weather.

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