Will there be a drought in 2022?

There's been a lot of media coverage about droughts and hosepipe bans recently, but what does that mean for you as a Bristol Water customer?

In our region, droughts and hosepipe bans are very, very rare occurrences. The last hosepipe ban due to droughts in our region was in 1976 during an exceptional hot and dry period.

Rainfall this year has been below average and as a result reservoir storage is lower than normal. However, our modelling and forecasts do not indicate the need to impose hosepipe bans or any other water supply restrictions during 2022.

To make sure that we are resilient to drought, we’ll continue to carry out our dry weather management plan. Over the coming months, we’ll prioritise and use other sources of available water and implement options to recover reservoir levels over the winter recharge period.

We will continue to monitor the situation, but with our current water resource outlook, we do not foresee any issues in supply to customers.

We always ask customers to think about their water usage – this saves water, protects our beautiful environment and helps keep bills down.

We’re doing our bit to keep water usage down by reducing leakage to the lowest level in the country; customers can see how they can do their bit by getting water saving advice from our website and on our social media. Even small changes can make a big difference.

Here’s a few easy tips to help us all do our bit and protect this precious resource:

Use rainwater from a water butt and/or a watering can to water the garden
Water the garden in the morning or evening when it's coolest
Don’t water your lawn, it will bounce back in the rain
Take short showers to cool down, not baths
If possible, put full dishwashers and washing machines on overnight – this helps manage demand at peak times
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