With more warm weather on the way, Jersey Water is expecting Islanders to use as much as 160 million litres of water in the next week, which is nearly the equivalent of the current volume of Grands Vaux reservoir.
The water utility is reminding customers to cut back on their water use and minimise wastage, to avoid the need for restrictions.
So far, the desalination plant has added an extra 100 million litres into the Island’s supply, which is enough to fill Millbrook reservoir three times over.
However, with no rainfall recorded yet in August and streams beginning to dry up, water levels are 5% below the ten-year average and continuing to fall.
Mark Bowden, Head of Water Resilience commented:
“As it stands, we have enough water for approximately 80-85 days, but we anticipate that as temperatures increase Islanders’ water use will rise over the next seven days. Our message is still for customers to only use what they need and cut back on any waste. We’re encouraged to see demand falling and appreciate the efforts people are making to reduce their use. Thanks to this, we’ve so far been able to avoid introducing any restrictions.”
Currently there are no plans to bring in temporary use bans, but Jersey Water will continue to monitor supply and demand levels closely and is asking Islanders to keep conserving their water use.
Image below: Water levels at Grands Vaux reservoir during the drought of 2022.
