Demand for water drops by around 60 million litres a day, Scottish Water says

A water supplier estimates that demand for water has decreased by around 60 million litres a day in the last week, following an appeal to urge the public to reduce how much they are using.

Scottish Water says data has indicated the demand has significantly dropped, with a peak of around 2,000 million litres reportedly needed per day last week.

The supplier says the amount of water saved could supply half of Fife for a day, and it said the shortage coincided with the driest start to the year since 1964.

Scottish Water says the decrease comes as a result of the public reducing their use of garden sprinklers and hoses, taking shorter showers and minimising the time taps are turned on for.

With the weather due to be fairly dry throughout the remainder of the week, the supplier asked the public for its continued efforts.

It said that even if rainfall picks up later this week and next, it is unlikely to make much of a difference in reservoir levels, which it says have fallen from 91% last week to 77% this week, 13% lower than the average of 90% for this time of year.

Kes Juskowiak, a Scottish Water director, said: “We’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has helped reduce water demand by using what is a precious resource as efficiently as possible, but we need customers to continue their support and to take whatever measures they can to do so.

“The system remains under significant pressure and so we’d like to encourage everyone to continue to use Scotland’s water as efficiently as possible.

“Gardeners can have a particularly big impact by switching off sprinklers and using watering cans instead.

“But we can all play our part through simple steps like shorter showers and turning the tap off when we brush our teeth. It all adds up.”

Scottish Water said individuals use around 178 litres of water a day in Scotland, whereas in England and Wales the average is 137 litres per day.

The corporation is due to launch its Water Is Always Worth Saving campaign next month, which aims to show the public more ways in which they can reduce water usage.