Water saving in scotland...why?

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Why We’re Asking You to Save Water

These last few months, in parts of Scotland, we’ve enjoyed warm and sunny weather. This is particularly true for the East – Aberdeenshire, Tayside, Edinburgh, Fife, Borders.

January to April was the driest start to the year since 1964. These areas have had below average rainfall for more than a year – since September 2024.

Summer came with paddling pools and sprinklers as we enjoyed the outdoors. And still, not much rain to refill rivers and reservoirs.

Now Autumn also looks to be dry, again particularly in the East.

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THE FACTS

  • People in Scotland use, on average, 178 litres of water per person per day, which is higher than in England and Wales where people use an average of 137 litre’s per person per day.
  • The heavy downpours that we have had are short-lived and often followed by warmth, evaporating into the air again, not flowing into reservoirs.
  • Equally, the rainfall we’ve had didn’t fall in the areas where we’ve needed it most – the East.
  • Only 1% of Scotland’s rainwater is captured in reservoirs.
  • Leaks from our network do happen – we have reduced leaks by 58% over the last 15 years and continue to work hard to look after and upgrade our aging assets, many from the Victorian era. And hot dry weather means pipes may shift and expand and burst – Scottish Water monitors this and has teams across the country dealing with this asap.

REST ASSURED…

Scottish Water has resilience plans in place which include the moving of water from areas there is plenty to where it is needed.

We monitor all year round and have detailed Drought Plans for areas where we identify what we can do to prevent drought risk without harming the environment.

We can’t just ‘build more reservoirs’ we need to adapt to deal with the changes in climate and population.

That is why we asking you to play an owner’s part and save water whenever you can – even in winter, and even if it’s raining. For a few helpful tips please see our Water Is Always Worth Saving page.

 

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And we need your help to do that, to make a difference now.

Please help us help you – consider your water use, check out these tips to reduce how much you use in the coming months, easy, small things that when we all do them will make a big difference.

View all Tips & Help
View all Tips & Help