Wessex water announces first hosepipe ban in 50 years as Gurkhas fight UK wildfires

The wildfire crisis is getting worse

Gurkhas have been deployed to South Wales to help crews working 10- and 11-hour shifts against ten large fires, with around 100 personnel sent at the weekend and a further 100 expected to follow.

It is the sort of scene Britain associates with southern Europe in August and it has arrived in the same week as another hosepipe ban.

From one minute past midnight on Tuesday, Wessex Water’s 1.4 million customers across Bath, Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire will be living under restrictions for the first time since the notorious summer of 1976.

More than 27 million people in England are already in the same position, drought has been declared across roughly 70 per cent of the country, and four fire and rescue services are dealing with major incidents. After five heatwaves, Britain is parched and burning at the same time.

What the Wessex Water Hosepipe Ban Means

Wessex Water is the latest company to act, and its ban is its first in 50 years, The Independent reported.

The UK has roasted through five heatwaves this summer, with a potential sixth arriving before autumn; on Thursday the hottest day of the year was recorded at Kew Gardens in London, where temperatures reached 38.1C.

Households wanting to know whether they are affected can check the full list of UK areas under a hosepipe ban, which now covers a large share of England.

A Record Year for Wildfires

Fire and rescue services in South Wales, Hampshire, Cambridgeshire and the West Midlands are all handling major incidents.

Chief Fire Officer Phil Garrigan told BBC Breakfast that forecast rain made things look “a little more positive from a fire and rescue service point of view”, but that crews were still “dealing with a significant number” of fires.

The damage is already severe. A large grass fire near Stourbridge Golf Club in the West Midlands, reported on 13 August, spread across more than 500 acres, destroyed 19 homes, damaged another 18 and forced residents to evacuate. In South Wales, 14 wildfires are still burning across an area equivalent to 400 football pitches.

The National Fire Chiefs Council says England and Wales have been struck by 1,017 wildfires this year, matching last year’s record total, with at least 458 in July alone. Between 1 January and 12 August last year, 869 had been recorded, in what was then the worst year on record.

Why the Army Is Carrying Water

South Wales Fire and Rescue Service said on Sunday it was responding to “significant wildfire activity” with support from services across the UK and from military personnel.

Around 100 troops, including members of the Queen’s Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment and 22 Royal Engineers, were deployed for logistical, operational and planning support, the Ministry of Defence said.

The QOGLR is a unit of the Royal Logistic Corps made up of Nepalese Gurkhas and British officers, part of a military tradition stretching back 200 years.

Their job has been to move water from distant sources to build a mobile reservoir at key locations, shift equipment and supplies, and help emergency crews reach remote and difficult terrain, freeing specialist responders to concentrate on the fire line.

Rain returned to parts of the UK on Monday, but the Daily Mail reported that it is nowhere near enough to reverse the drought, with reservoirs still running dry and car washes and swimming pools braced for further restrictions.

The risk in South Wales remains high despite temperatures easing over the coming days, so the Gurkhas will keep ferrying water uphill while the rest of the country works out how to keep cool in the heat with the hose switched off.