FIFERS are being urged to save water to help maintain supplies across the country.

Scottish Water has called on residents to use supplies as efficiently as possible in homes and gardens to protect resources.

With demand increasing during recent dry weather, people can help the provider to cope with demand by; using a watering can instead of a garden hose; taking shorter showers; turning the tap off when brushing teeth; using washing machines and dishwashers only when fully loaded; and using a bucket and sponge rather than a hose to wash cars.

Kes Juskowiak, Scottish Water’s General Manager of Customer Water Services, said: “The recent dry weather has seen an increase in customer use and an additional 100 million litres of water had to be distributed each day across the weekend and on Monday.

"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."

He added: “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."

Scottish Water says the amount of water needed has increased by 100 million litres per day in the past few days, the equivalent of 50 Olympic-sized swimming pools, or 1.2 million baths, per day.

This means we are using an average of 180 litres of water per person, per day, higher than pre-COVID levels and higher than the rest of the UK, where the average is 145 litres per person.

Average reservoir levels across Scotland are at 85 per cent, four per cent lower than the average for this time of year and six per cent lower than this time last year.