The weather has been kinder to reservoirs in the Midlands and Mid Wales during July, but families still need to conserve water supplies.

That was the message from Shropshire’s water supplier Severn Trent today as it continued to keep a watchful eye on the driest start to a year for more than eight decades.

Fraser Pithie, Severn Trent’s senior operations manger, explained: “A little rain has been very welcome, both to gardeners and to the water industry.

“But this has been against the background of the driest start to a year since 1929, with six successive months of below-average rainfall in our region from January to June.”

He added: “In some places we’ve had just over half the rainfall so far this year that we’d normally expect. So naturally, we’re keeping a close eye on the situation.

“The more steps we can all take now – both as a company and as individuals – then the better-placed our water supplies will be if dry, hot weather returns.”

Severn Trent said its reservoir levels were still substantially lower than they would normally be at this time of the year.

While overall storage stands at 75 per cent, Tittesworth reservoir in North Staffordshire is only 54 per cent full, and customers in the area have seen a switch from their usual water source to conserve supplies.

The switch is one of several actions Severn Trent has taken to secure supplies, which have included stepping up leakage detection and repair activities, and active management of the balance between its reservoir, river and groundwater sources.

Meanwhile, the company said customers should still make a contribution to securing water supplies by being water-wise in the garden.

“The grass is looking greener than earlier in July which shows how quickly it can recover from an extended hot, dry spell,” said Mr Pithie.

“Using a hosepipe or sprinkler to water the lawn can swallow up as much as 1,000 litres of drinking water in just one hour. To put it in perspective, that’s more water than a family of four would normally use in a whole day.”

By Carl Jones