Reservoir stocks in Yorkshire have risen for the first time in 13 weeks, following recent rainfall and the usual autumn reduction in water demand.

Photo: Scammonden reservoir

Across the region, stocks now stand at 47.6%, up from 46.9% the previous week and slightly above the 45.6% recorded at the same point in 2025. It is the first increase since June, when thunderstorms brought a small rise, following a similar uplift at the end of May.

Despite the small increase in reservoir levels, they remain well below the 68.7% average for this point of the year.

The Hull aquifer, which supplies large parts of North and East Yorkshire, is currently at 42%, broadly in line with the 41.8% recorded this time last year and just below the 48% average for this time of year.

Andy Shaw, head of water production, treatment and energy at Yorkshire Water, said:

“It’s encouraging to finally see a bit of an increase in our reservoir levels after a long, dry summer. Our reservoir stocks and the Hull aquifer remain some way short of where they should be at this time of year and will need rainfall above long-term average to recover to where we need them to be going into 2027.

“This summer has been a challenging one, and our teams have worked around the clock to manage the water supply to ensure all our customers have the water they need, without the need for any usage restrictions.

“Avoiding restrictions in such a hot, dry summer is testament to the work we’ve done since last summer to increase the resilience of our operation. However, we also recognise that there is much more to do to improve and deliver the service our customers expect, and we’re committed to doing that as part of our largest ever upgrade of our network by 2030.

Since the drought and hosepipe restrictions of 2025, Yorkshire Water has taken several steps to improve the resilience of the clean water network, including:

increased treated water storage in new service reservoirs across the region

improved the output from water treatment works to ensure the network is working even more efficiently

laid almost 300km of new water mains to reduce bursts and leakage

fitted almost 500,000 smart meters to detect leaks, which are saving 16 million litres of water per day

Andy Shaw added:

“We are expecting a drier spell to end September, so it is important people continue to take steps to review their water usage and make any changes to water use where they can. This, combined with our efforts to improve the network, will help the reservoirs and groundwater levels recovery over the next few months so we can enter 2027 in a healthy position.”