Anglian Water: Demand hit record 1.6billion litres in one day during heat wave

Anglian Water took “a tough decision” to announce a hosepipe ban soon afterwards, in response to one of this summer’s five mini-heatwaves, Central Bedfordshire Council’s sustainable communities overview and scrutiny committee was told.

The company serves around 7m customers in the eastern region, with 39,000km of water mains, according to Anglian Water’s senior policy and public affairs lead Grant Tuffs.

“We’re laying 36km of new clean water pipes across the county, which shows our commitment to reduce the frequency of bursts because of a very old asset base with a massive plan of mains renewal,” he explained. “There are various challenges in the east of England peculiar to here.

“These are the driest environment weather-related, a flat and low-lying landscape that requires plenty of pumping effort and energy costs, high demand through agricultural needs, and the country’s fastest-growing area.

“Those issues are being met through our business planning process and our investment plans. There were five mini-heatwaves during the summer drought in the east of England, and rainfall was just 1.6mm in July.

“The region had six consecutive months of below-average rainfall by the end of August. Nitrate levels in some of the rivers feeding the reservoirs limited our ability to abstract water to refill them.

“Demand reached a record 1.6bn litres in one day in June. By the end of September, reservoir levels were around a fifth lower than we’d expect.

“We reached drought management level two in July, and introduced a hosepipe ban for the first time since 2012. That was a tough decision, but demand was phenomenally high.

“We worked on leakage, network operations and supply transfers to keep the taps flowing.” After the ban, we saw a reduction in demand by nine per cent or around a million litres of water,” he said. “It’s levelled out to five or six per cent since.

“There were 300 burst mains and 4,000 ongoing leaks between April and August this year. We’ve repaired 13,000 leaks, about 44 per cent more than normal for summer.

“Restrictions remain in place currently. Recovery could extend into 2027 without sustained rainfall. That would require a rainfall rate of 120 per cent above the long-term average.

“Anglian Water has mitigation in place to cope with these recurring events through our strategic options, such as reservoirs, desalination, water reuse, and reduced consumption.

“We’re alsoinvesting heavily in reducing storm overflows, through historic sewer systems. These are to stop homes flooding in high rainfall.

“In Leighton Buzzard, we repurposed some old sludge tanks to become storm overflow storage and provide more capacity. We can treat that water and put it into the environment safely once a storm recedes, rather than spill it into rivers in a less-treated fashion.

“There’s also nutrient pollution, which requires a reduction in phosphorus, ammonia and nitrogen to get mandated by the Environment Agency to make sure we discharge the right quality of effluent.”

Our long-term strategy is to halve leakage by 2050, he added. “Smart metres have saved us money and water, as it’s amazing how much internal leakage you find with properties.”