A DECISION by South West Water (SWW) to impose a hosepipe ban on thousands more customers strengthened the case for the urgent creation of a supply grid across the Westcountry, MP Ian Liddell-Grainger said this week.

With Cornwall, Devon, and the Isles of Scilly officially in drought status, SWW took the unprecedented step of widening its hosepipe ban to all customers supplied by its Roadford reservoir, with officials warning the measure could remain in place until December unless there was exceptionally heavy rain before then.

But Mr Liddell-Grainger, who represents West Somerset and will be the Conservative candidate for the new Tiverton and Minehead constituency taking in much of the area around Wellington, said the ban amounted to no more than ‘applying a pimple plaster to a gaping wound’.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said if local residents were going to have their water rationed, then so should tourists.

Wimbleball Lake, on Exmoor, jointly managed by South West Water and Wessex Water is the third largest reservoir in the region and Mr Liddell-Grainger said many constituents were fearful of a repeat of last year’s scenes when it dropped to only 17 per cent full at the end of the summer.

He said: “What I find really extraordinary is that year-long residents of the South West are being put under restrictions in order that tourists can come down here and use as much water as they like.

“Even more bizarre is that Airbnb enterprises will be exempt from any limitations on water use because they are businesses, when it is the recent unfettered growth in that sector which has increased demand for water.”

Mr Liddell-Grainger said the Government had to start looking seriously at constructing a national water grid to carry supplies from those parts of the country where there was plentiful water to regions like the far South West where it was in short supply.

Such a plan was proposed more than 30 years ago but was only half-heartedly progressed after the water industry was privatised.

He said even a mini-grid for the Westcountry could relieve the pressure on supplies.

“But it is undeniable that the current situation has been brought about by a massive growth in both the region’s housing stock and its tourism sector and the concurrent failure of South West Water to invest in more reservoir capacity,” he said.

“A hosepipe ban may provide a solution this year but it is only a temporary fix and I can even foresee it being extended further because what rain falls now will either evaporate or be taken up by plants before it can penetrate down to replenish the aquifers.

“But if SWW is effectively rationing water supplies to people in Cornwall then it should be doing the same to the three million tourists expected in the county this summer.

“If it has any money left after its £2 million pollution fine it should be printing off ration books, one to be issued to every tourist as they enter the county.

“Rather like the old wartime ration books these would have coupons to be exchanged with their hosts for water, one coupon for every flush, two for a shower, three for every washing machine or dishwasher cycle, five for every bath, and so on.

“And when all the coupons had been used the visitors would simply have to pack up and go home.

“Desperate measures, perhaps, but these are desperate times - and if South West Water has an explanation of how it intends to metaphorically supply a gallon of water from a pint bottle this summer, I should be delighted to be informed.”