Thousands of households could experience water shortages if another heatwave hits this summer as water companies struggle to cope with peaks in demand.
While it would be likely to take another year of dry weather before widespread restrictions on water use were introduced, experts warned that heatwaves were causing local outages due to “infrastructure failures”.
Eight water companies in the south of England and Wales have already introduced hosepipe bans following an exceptionally dry month.
Shorts
England has received just three per cent of its long-term average July rainfall, with large parts of the country experiencing no rain at all.
