Reservoirs are back above eighty per cent after a wet autumn.
The Calder and Ardle Water Board lifted its drought order on Monday, ending fourteen months of restrictions on hosepipes, car washing and garden sprinklers across the city and the valley. The board said its five reservoirs were now at an average of 83 per cent of capacity, up from a low of 41 per cent in late August last year.
The decision follows one of the wettest autumns on record in the region. The weather station at Harrow Moor recorded 412 millimetres of rain between September and the end of October, roughly one and a half times the long-term average for those two months. The largest reservoir, at Holloway Head in the hills above Ardle, overflowed its spillway for the first time in three years last week.
What the order meant
The drought order was introduced after two dry winters in a row left the reservoirs well below their normal levels. It banned the use of hosepipes for watering gardens, filling paddling pools and washing cars, and allowed the board to reduce water pressure at night in parts of the network to cut leakage. Businesses were exempt but were asked to make voluntary savings.
The board estimates that the restrictions reduced household demand by around 9 per cent at their peak. Officials also issued 214 warnings and seven fines to households and businesses found breaking the rules, most of them after reports from neighbours.
“People made real changes to the way they used water, and that bought us time. We want to thank every household that put up with a brown lawn for two summers,” said Marguerite Osei-Lindgren, the board’s director of water resources, at a briefing at the board’s headquarters by the canal.
Osei-Lindgren said the board would not lift the restrictions until it was confident the reservoirs could recover even if the winter turned out to be dry. Models now suggest that levels should remain comfortable until next summer, she said, though the board would continue to watch the figures weekly.
Leaks and the longer view
Lifting the order does not end the debate about the region’s water supply. Critics, including the Assembly’s environment committee, have pointed out that the board loses almost a quarter of the water it treats through leaking pipes, one of the highest rates of any utility of its size. During the drought, the board increased its leak repair teams from twelve to twenty and says it has fixed around 1,800 leaks since the order began.
Environmental groups say that is not enough. Callum Ashby-Reyes, who chairs the Ardle Rivers Trust, said the drought had shown how close the region came to running short and warned that the next dry spell could be worse. “The weather bailed us out this year,” he said. “The pipes are still old and the reservoirs are no bigger than they were. We have been lucky, and luck is not a water policy.”
The board has proposed a new reservoir on the upper Ardle and an expansion of the existing one at Holloway Head, both of which would require approval from the Assembly and the government. A public consultation on the plans is due to open in the new year. Farmers whose land would be flooded by the new reservoir have already formed an action group to oppose it.
What households should know
With immediate effect, households can use hosepipes and sprinklers again. The board is asking customers to continue to use water carefully, to fix dripping taps and to report any leaks they see in the street using its phone line or website. It is also offering free water-saving packs, including shower timers and tap aerators, to any household that asks.
The board said bills would not change as a result of lifting the order. However, the annual review of charges in the spring is expected to include the cost of the extra repair work carried out during the drought, which could add a small amount to the average bill.
For gardeners in the valley, the news came a little too late to matter much this year. “The lawn can have all the water it likes now,” said one resident of Riverside Terrace in Ardle, looking out at a garden that had turned green again on its own. “It just didn’t need me to do anything.”
