RESERVOIR levels have seen a “very slow rise” since the Island’s total water storage dropped to 57% capacity last month – but Jersey Water is asking customers to remain “aware of the situation” and make “small changes” to help reduce usage.
In an update, the utility company’s head of water resilience and emergency planning Mark Bowden said the figure had since climbed to 63% – but noted that “we are using about as much as we are putting in”.
He also highlighted that this included 5 million litres per day from the desalination plant, which was started up earlier this year.
“We’ve had a bit of rain through the course of November, but autumn is still much drier than average.”
Mr Bowden had previously warned that a lack of “sufficient” rainfall before the end of the year “could put us in a really difficult position going into 2026”.
“We normally like to be full by the turn of the year,” he said, adding that this was “looking unlikely now unless we have an extremely wet November and December”.
Commenting on whether Islanders still needed to be conscious of their water usage, Mr Bowden said: “We ask our customers to be cautious with the water use at all times of year.”
He continued: “In Jersey in particular, we do have a very finite resource. We don’t have much storage of water relative to our population.
“Even with the desalination plant running, it still presents a risk to our supplies if we have a dry year.”
Mr Bowden reiterated that “really small changes in behaviour” by customers, such as shorter showers or avoiding the use of hose pipes, could make “a big overall difference” and “help our supplies last longer”.
Despite the “very slow rise” in reservoir levels, he said Jersey Water was “not overly concerned at this stage”.
“We do have a number of months of the winter to come.
“We would like to be full by mid-spring, so it’s not panic-stations yet but we are just asking Islanders to be aware of the situation.”
