Water companies are putting their faith in the public that they won’t overuse their water supply over the coming weeks. A hosepipe ban was officially announced yesterday for the Easter weekend, but some want the utilities to reduce their waste.

Adam Kingdon, CEO of i20 Water told ELN: “The drought conditions are very worrying. Unless there is substantial rainfall between now and the summer, the water companies are going to find it very tough to manage. i2O Water is working very closely with water companies to implement new technology to reduce leakage further and to manage demand.”

Will a hosepipe ban have much effect? And can you trust the public to follow the ban? A spokesperson for the Consumer Council for Water told ELN he had confidence the public would not flout the hosepipe ban.

He said: “People don’t mind doing their bit as long as they see companies doing their bit also. It’s important that consumers see the water companies tackling things like leakage.”

Last month the Environment Secretary announced the UK faced a drought after the UK faced two dry winters. There was just 636mm of rainbetween February 2011 and January 2012.