With the Island’s reservoirs at 90 per cent full, the company says it is in a better position than others in the UK where high temperatures have led to a 25 per cent increase in consumption.
Hose pipe bans have already been introduced in some areas and Southern Water is advising its customers to limit showers to just four minutes.
‘The prolonged period of dry weather and high temperatures has meant that water consumption in Jersey has increased to normal summer demand slightly earlier than usual,’ company chief executive Helier Smith said.
‘We understand that the next few months are possibly going to be drier than average so we may see further periods of higher summer demand and low rainfall but at present this gives us no particular cause for concern.’
The company is advising Islanders to stop watering lawns as a sprinkler can use as much as 1,000 litres of clean drinking water in a single hour – more than a family of four would use in a whole day.
And, not running a tap while brushing teeth can save six litres every 60 seconds.
Jersey Water is currently supplying around 23 million litres of water each day, in line with normal summer demand. The yearly daily average is 20 million litres and it can peak to 26 million a day in very hot weather.
The last hosepipe ban in Jersey was in 2003. When reservoir levels fall below the capacity to meet demand the company can run the desalination plant at La Moye which processes sea water to top up supplies. It costs about £5,000 to produce ten million litres over 24 hours to meet half the Island’s usual daily needs.
