FOLLOWING recent media coverage about the risk of drought, I wanted to reassure everyone in the Anglian Water region that we are not expecting to impose any restrictions on household water use this summer.

This is a bold promise, but we can only keep it if customers do their bit to save water and not waste a drop.

We’ve had the driest spring in more than 60 years and our region is already known as the driest in the country, so it’s not surprising people are concerned. We get just two-thirds of the UK’s average rainfall.

Despite these challenging conditions our reservoirs are about 90 per cent full – exactly where we would expect them to be at this time of year.

So we will not be restricting water supplies or introducing hosepipe bans this year. In fact, we haven’t had a ban since 1991. Since then, we’ve spent more than �50million improving the resilience of our network and our water supplies.

Despite our current strong position, we must not be complacent. And we’re calling on everyone living in the East of England to help us make sure our water supplies are secure for the future.

We are re-doubling our efforts to promote water efficiency and would strongly encourage everyone to think carefully about how much water they use.

We’ll be carrying out almost 90,000 water efficiency audits and fitting free water saving devices across the region as part of a water efficiency campaign.

And we’d encourage people to save water and save money by installing a meter. We want four out of every five homes to have a meter fitted by 2015.

The fact that we supply the same amount of water today as we did in 1989, despite a 20 per cent increase in population, is down to our own determination, together with the active support of customers, to save water and keep supplies secure. Our experience so far this year shows just how essential this approach is.

Water is more valuable than many of us realise. Let’s work together to make sure there’s enough to go around, this year and every year.

PETER SIMPSON

Managing Director

Anglian Water

Via e-mail