Around 33,000 homes — including communities in north Carmarthenshire and north Pembrokeshire — could be under a hosepipe ban by this weekend, Welsh Water has warned.
The company said today it is “likely” to introduce temporary restrictions across Mid and South Ceredigion and neighbouring areas unless demand for drinking water falls significantly in the coming days.
The affected area stretches from Llanon, Llangwyryfon and Cwm Ystwyth in Ceredigion, across to Crymych, Llanfyrnach and Nevern in north Pembrokeshire, and into parts of north Carmarthenshire including Farmers, Pencader and Hermon.
A final decision will be made later this week.
A billion litres a day
The company says the prolonged hot, dry weather has pushed demand to unprecedented levels — around one billion litres of drinking water going into supply every day over the past week, roughly 20% more than normal for the time of year.
Unlike the short peaks of a normal warm spell, it says demand has stayed exceptionally high all day and into the evening for weeks — and the start of the school holidays is expected to bring more visitors and more pressure.
Unusually, the problem is not the reservoirs. Welsh Water says water resources and reservoir levels remain healthy — the challenge is treating, storing and moving enough drinking water through the network fast enough to keep up.
That marks a difference from the last hosepipe ban to hit the area, in August 2022, when reservoir levels at Llys y Frân fell to drought levels after the driest year since 1976.
Treatment works are running at maximum capacity, the company says, with its entire tanker fleet deployed, extra water moved around the network and crews working around the clock on leaks.
Despite that, local service reservoirs — the underground tanks that hold treated water — are being drained faster than they can be refilled at the busiest times of day.
‘Not a decision we want to take’
Kit Wilson, Welsh Water’s chief customer officer, said: “We are now reaching the point where, unless demand reduces significantly over the next few days, we are likely to have no option but to introduce temporary hosepipe restrictions this weekend.”
“This is not a decision we want to take, but we must act in the interests of all our customers. There is still an opportunity to avoid these restrictions if everyone plays their part by reducing non-essential water use now.”
Any ban would be a short-term emergency measure, the company says — limited to the affected area and lifted as soon as conditions improve and local storage recovers.
Its advice for avoiding one: put the hosepipe away, delay washing cars, patios and driveways, water gardens with a can, take shorter showers, turn taps off while brushing teeth, run washing machines and dishwashers only with full loads, and fix dripping taps.
The warning caps a week in which south Wales has topped the UK’s temperature charts — with the heat already keeping the coast’s rescue services busy.
