Water boss says people need to use less

People will need to use less water in the future or bills will continue to rise, a senior water company boss said.

Southern Water said it has cut leaks by nearly 20% over the last year but that money from rising bills is needed to improve infrastructure.

Its managing director of water, Tim Mcmahon, said the company was investing in improving infrastructure as most water sources will needed to change over the coming decades.

The Havant Thicket Reservoir in Havant, Hampshire, will be the UK's first reservoir in 30 years and is being built by Southern Water and Portsmouth Water.

The company said it would be able to store 8.7bn litres of water and provide up to 111m litres of water a day during a drought.

Southern Water also plans to take water from a controversial potential reservoir, which thousands have opposed, near Abingdon in Oxfordshire.

A survey by Water UK found 46% of people thought their entire household used 20 litres (four gallons) of water a day.

But the average household in the UK uses more than 500 litres (110 gallons).

"We can't keep extracting from our current sources that we take our water from," Mr Mcmahon told BBC South Today.

"Sixty per centre of them will be different in 20 years' time. That's where the investment is going."

He said he was aware rising bills were not always popular with customers, but that water companies' hands were being forced.

"If you look at the south-east of England, it's drier than Sydney, Istanbul, Dallas, Marrakech," he said.

"We have got a very densely populated area and we need to start investing to cater for that.

"If you're in Hampshire, water will be coming from Oxfordshire from the new reservoir we're building with Thames Water, pumped all the way down to Hampshire."

He added: "We need to reduce customers' usage. Otherwise we will have to put other investments in place, which will not be good for our customers and might not be the best thing for the environment."

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