Water company sees record demand during heatwave

A water company said it had received a record level of demand from its 4.3 million customers during the recent hot spell.

Anglian Water supplies homes and businesses in Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Milton Keynes, Norfolk, Lincolnshire and parts of Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Essex.

Last week it saw a 30% increase in demand and said its average daily 1.1 billion litres of drinking water supplied to customers had risen to 1.4 billion - the same level as a record set in 2022.

However, on Friday a new peak was reached at 1.6 billion litres. The company has previously urged people to "use a little less [water] wherever they can".

England was under an amber heat health weather warning last week and temperatures widely topped 30C (86F).

Suffolk became the first county in the UK to officially enter a heatwave, after temperatures surpassed 27C (81F) for a third consecutive day.

Last month Anglian Water confirmed it had "no plans" to enforce a hosepipe ban across the East of England. However, with an increase in demand the company urged people to "use a little less wherever they can, so we can meet the demand and keep taps running for everyone".

The BBC's lead weather presenter, Sarah Keith-Lucas, said with climate change, heatwaves in the UK could become the "new normal".

"What would have been a 'hot' day 30 years ago, would now be considered pretty normal," she wrote.

The average global temperature has risen by just over 1.1C (34F) since the pre-industrial era, which is enough to drive a large increase in the frequency, intensity and duration of heatwaves.

The Met Office said heatwaves were now 30 times more likely than before the industrial revolution, and were projected to potentially occur every other year by the 2050s.

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