Water resources

We've seen the driest January to June rainfall period since 1929 (Met Office data) and between April and June we had 35% of the average rainfall expected for this time of year. 

However, we have no plans to introduce any water restrictions at this time.

The Water Supply Grid 

We're working hard and monitoring and managing the network every day to balance water resources across the region. We're doing this using our Water Supply Grid which is a network of underground pipes that allows us to move water to where it's needed. This gives us flexibility and helps us protect areas experiencing low rainfall. The Grid is very resilient and means that an area isn't reliant on one particular supply if there's an unexpected problem, however it is only effective if the network has the water resources to move around.

We've met our leakage targets this year despite the challenging weather conditions, however it continues to be dry so we all need to use water sensibly. You can access water saving advice and free water saving devices here.

What you can do to help 

We want you to use water wisely and by doing some simple things like turning the tap off whilst brushing your teeth and using a watering can instead of a hosepipe you can save water. For lots of useful hints on how you can save water and money, why not check out the water saving tips and freebies section of our website?

Our aim is to balance future supply and demand, taking into account the potential effects of climate change.  We consider options such as reducing leakage and new resources so we can be confident there's enough supply to meet demand.

Which water supply we use is all dependent on location, location, location - the hills of West Yorkshire make an ideal home for reservoirs, whereas in the north we tap into the river network and the flatter east is more at home using groundwater.