WATER bosses plan to plug more leaks after the driest September since 1910.

Leaders at Severn Trent Water say they are looking at water levels and planning how they can keep levels as high as possible for the next 25 years.

Marcus O’Kane, water resources strategy manager explains: “The weather has a huge impact on how much water we have available to us, and at times like this, when rain is scarce, we need to be ready and make sure that we have water available for our customers. We’re comfortable with our reservoir levels at the moment, and we’re not anticipating any issues this year, but as we know, the weather can be changeable and we never know when the next dry period will be."

Severn Trent has published a water resources management plan which explains how they are planning to meet the challenge of keeping customers supplied with water over the next 25 years.

He added: “Our plan talks about the long term challenges we face, such as: meeting the demand for water from the additional 1.6 million people expected to be living in the region, coping with potential lower river flows during dry periods as a result of climate change and replacing around 85 million litres per day of licensed water abstraction that is no longer environmentally sustainable."

The plan also explains how the company is planning to continue to drive leakage (already at record low levels) down even further.

Over the next 25 years Severn Trent plan to reduce leakage by 18 per cent from 2010 levels, install over 600,000 free household meters and give up around 85Ml/d of abstraction licences in the most sensitive areas to protect the environment.