A hosepipe ban is being being introduced across Cornwall and a small area of North Devon as a drought is declared across Devon and Cornwall.

South West Water announced this morning that the ban for Cornwall and the Upper Tamar Valley will comes in at one minute past midnight on Tuesday, August 23.

Activities covered by the hosepipe ban include using hosepipes to water gardens or clean cars.

Customers can still do these activites using tap water from a bucket or watering can; or use water that is not sourced from taps such as grey water, rainwater from a water butt or a private borehole.

This temporary measure will not apply to blue badge holders or those on South West Water’s priority register. Businesses and farmers are unaffected.

Lisa Gahan, who is responsible for water resources at South West Water, said: ‘Due to the extremely hot and prolonged dry weather, we believe the right thing to do is to introduce a Temporary Use Ban, acting now in areas of the region where we are forecasting pressures on reservoirs, to protect water resources and to safeguard the environment, allowing rivers and reservoirs to recharge over the winter months.

‘We want to thank customers right across the South West for playing an important role in proactively reducing usage and only using the water they need, and we ask them to continue saving water.

‘Each and every day, teams across South West Water work tirelessly to deliver over 870 million litres of clean, safe and reliable drinking water to a population of circa 3.5m, rising to 10m as visitors flock to the region in the summer months, and that remains a priority.’

The South West, like the majority of the country, continues to experience an unprecedented and prolonged period of hot and dry weather, alongside extremely high levels of demand for water.

This year has been one of the driest on records. The eight-month period from November 2021 to June 2022 has been the driest in England since 1976 and the Met Office has revealed that July 2022 was the driest July for England since 1935, with just 35% of its average rainfall.

South West Water says that one of the pressures on its supply has been that the region’s population has increased markedly over the last 18 months, reaching anticipated 2050 levels, as more people moved to the region in response to the pandemic.

The water company says their reservoirs were 97% full at the start of the year. Many are now less than half full. The company relies on reservoirs and rivers for the majority of the supply in the South West.

A South West Water spokesperons said: ‘We can’t say exactly how long the ban will last as it purely depends on how much rain we get in the next few weeks, and how much demand is lowered. We’ll constantly be monitoring the situation and the levels of water in our reservoirs and rivers. The ban will be lifted once these levels return to normal.’