ISLANDERS are expected to use around 160 million litres of water in the next week as temperatures rise – nearly the equivalent of Grands Vaux reservoir’s current volume – with Jersey Water reminding customers to cut back on their usage to help avoid restrictions.
The utility company has warned that, 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.
The desalination plant, which was started up earlier this summer and costs more than £5,000 per day to run, has so far added an extra 100 million litres into the Island’s supply.
But Jersey Water’s head of water resilience, Mark Bowden, said that the rising temperatures would see Islanders’ usage increase over the next seven days to “somewhere between 10% and 20%” above average levels.
“It looks like we are going to have quite a sustained increase in demand over the course of the next week, so we just wanted to make people aware to be cautious and to not waste water,” he added.
The utility company yesterday stated that it had enough water for “approximately” 80 to 85 days, with no plans currently in place to bring in temporary use bans.
“We made the call at the beginning of August that we wouldn’t need to put in any restrictions in the immediate future,” Mr Bowden added – though he pointed out that Jersey could continue to see “extended dry spells” over the next two months.
“We are going to review the position at the end of August with the hope of not having to run it [the desalination plant] into September.”
