iStockA national plea urging people to take shorter showers and avoid using hoses has been renewed as Scotland continues to face its driest start to the year in 60 years.
Scottish Water said it is not calling for a full hosepipe ban, but issued the warning to protect resources and maintain normal supplies across the country.
Advice first issued last week asked people to take shorter showers, avoid using hoses, and only use their dishwashers or washing machines when fully loaded.
Scotland has experienced the driest period in more than half a century with only 59% of long-term average rainfall from January to April.
It’s estimated that demand for water has reduced by about 60 million litres per day – enough to supply about half of Fife with water for a day – from its peak of more than 2,000 million litres per day last week.
Scottish Water says its call for customers to use water efficiently by switching off sprinklers, using watering cans instead of hoses, and taking shorter showers was heeded.
With more dry weather forecast to last for most of this week, they are calling on customers to continue to support the company by using water efficiently.
Water levels in reservoirs have fallen from an average of 81% last week to 77%, However that figure is 13% below the average of 90% for this time of year and 16% below levels of 93% this time last year.
Kes Juskowiak from Scottish Water said: “We’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has helped reduce water demand by using what is a precious resources 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 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.”
Insight Sean Batty STV meteorologist
Some parts of Scotland have been astonishingly dry this spring, rainfall figures reveal.
In fact, it’s been so dry that East Lothian and eastern Fife have seen less rain than Gran Canaria, and Tiree has had less than Majorca.
When we average things out across the country, Scotland has had around 130mm of rain so far this spring.
There’s a hint that things might turn more unsettled in the final week of May, but even with rain, I’d say it’s unlikely we’ll top the 196mm recorded in spring 2001.
If that holds true, this could end up being our driest spring since the 1980s.
The SEPA rain gauge in Gifford shows the last rain here was on May 1, (minimal). The last ‘proper’ rainfall, was on April 16.
The average rainfall for May in Gifford area is around 60mm with only 0.4mm falling so far this May. Interestingly Gifford had 140mm of rain in May 2024 – more than double the average.
Another interesting thing about this area is that it looks like rainfall has been below average every month since June 2024 – which is why we’re seeing much lower water reserves – not necessarily because of the last few months – but the cumulative of many months with less rain than usual.
At the moment, I think spring 2025 will fall somewhere between the very dry springs of 1980 and 1984, when 150mm and 188mm of rain fell, respectively.
That would make it the driest Scottish spring in over 40 years.
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