Scottish Water is calling on people to use water as efficiently as possible in homes and gardens after a recent dry spell led to greater demand.

With forecasts of more dry, warm weather to come, the water provider is working to ensure its supply systems can cope with demand. As a result, the amount of water the organisation put into the network has had to be increased by 100 million litres per day in the past few days. That’s the equivalent of 50 Olympic-sized swimming pools or 1.2 million baths each day.

Kes Juskowiak, Scottish Water’s general manager of customer water services, said: “We’re working hard to maintain normal supplies for all but would ask that customers consider how they use water and to protect this precious resource.

“We believe that a large part of the additional water use is within gardens so we would ask that customers are mindful of how much water they use in outdoor spaces such as lawns.

“Water is always worth saving, so we would ask everyone to do all they can in and around the home and garden to help us keep water flowing normally to their taps. By taking simple steps to reduce the volume used around the home and garden, we can make our country’s water go even further.”

People can help save water by:

•Using water efficiently in the garden and outdoor spaces by using a watering can instead of a garden hose where possible.

•Taking shorter showers.

•Turning the tap off when brushing teeth.

•Using washing machines and dishwashers only when fully loaded.

•Using a bucket and sponge rather than a hose to wash the car.

Scottish Water customers are individually using an average of 180 litres of water per person per day, which remains higher than pre-Covid levels and is higher than the rest of the UK where people use an average of 145 litres per person per day.

Average reservoir levels across Scotland are at 85% and this is 4% lower than average for this time of year and 6% lower than this time last year.

Scottish Water is working to ensure it can maintain public water supply to customers in parts of the country affected by increased peak water use and is using tankers to supplement normal water supplies in some parts of the country such as Kippen, Balfron, Gargunnock and parts of Skye.

More information on saving water is available at www.yourwateryourlife.co.uk/save