From famine to feast as a wet March fills up our reservoirs
Reservoirs have benefited from the country’s wettest March in more than 40 years.
Those operated by Severn Trent, which serve the West Midlands, Staffordshire and Shropshire, are now at a total capacity of 96 per cent. That compares to only around 40 per cent last September.
Data up to March 30 showed 4.4 inches of rain has fallen in the month across the country, 91 per cent more than average.
As a result, water levels appear to have increased, with huge visible differences compared with the summer. The wet March has also come after a dry February, alleviating concerns that levels may be lower than normal as we enter spring and summer.
Alex Burkill, a Met Office meteorologist, said: “Water levels weren’t particularly high going into March, you need several months of wet weather to make a significant impact on reservoirs.”
Severn Trent says its reservoir levels are in “excellent shape” with many at 100 per cent and actually topping over.
A spokesman added: “This is despite only seeing 17 per cent of the rainfall we would expect in February. This is down to the hard work of our operational teams over the winter months, the millions of pounds we have spent moving water around our network and the outstanding response from our customers in thinking about their water usage through last year’s exceedingly hot and dry summer.
“While our water stocks are in a very good position – despite the hot summer and freeze-thaw events over the winter – it is exceedingly important that we all continue to think about the ways that we use water.
“We haven’t had to put a hosepipe ban in place in our region for nearly 30 years – since 1995 – and if we all continue to work together, there’s no reason to believe that we will need one in 2023, but we will be counting on our customers to use water wisely should we face another dry summer, in exactly the same manner as we did last year.”
The latest reservoir figures come as a plan has been revealed to pipe water from Severn Trent’s Lake Vyrnwy reservoir to drier areas of the country in the south east.
Water would be taken south by pipe, river and canal in plans to deal with Britain’s changing climate over the next 30 years.
