It looks ‘increasingly likely’ that a hosepipe ban will be brought into force across the country.

Irish Water has issued the warning after demand for water hit record levels in Dublin over the weekend.

The utility said similar surges were recorded in other parts of the country.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning Irish Water head of customer operations Yvonne Harris said the COVID-19 restrictions led to a 20% increase in domestic demand a number of weeks ago.

She said the utility realised that this could lead to difficulties and it asked people to conserve water to ensure the country had enough supply.

“In the intervening period, over the last three weeks, we have had phenomenal weather throughout the country and this dry weather has brought a few challenges for us,” she said.

“The primary issue is that our ground sources are drying up. So, essentially while the supply had been solid a few weeks ago, we are finding now that we are moving into a drought scenario.”

A water glass is filled with drinking water. Image: ROLAND WEIHRAUCH/dpa

She said 16 of Irish Water’s drinking schemes were in drought and 38 were at risk of drought before the long-weekend.

“I would expect that when we start to analyse our data this week and when we analyse our data this week and when we look at our 900 water schemes, we will find that even more have either moved into drought or are quite critical.”

She said last Saturday saw an increased demand of 30 million litres of water in the great Dublin Area last Saturday – the equivalent of having an extra 200,000 people using the water.

She said hosepipe bans are not brought in lightly but technical teams are monitoring the situation.

“Based on our data of last week, the weather forecast as it was last week and still continues to be for long dry spells,” she said.

“We do think that we will be in a position where we will have to put a water conservation order in place.

“Over the next week or so, we will gather all of the data required – we will look at geographical data and our technical teams will build up a portfolio. If the data and the criteria is met for the water conservation order, it is likely we will go there.”

Pictured people exercising and enjoying the sunshine in a leafy Pheonix Park. Image: Sam Boal/RollingNews

She said the utility expects to announce the ban “in the coming weeks.”

“I would appeal to the public even in an advance of the water conservation order, please maintain water for essential uses,” she said.

“Water for non-essential use is really going to cause us difficulty – we want to maintain water for hygiene and hand washing, that is our critical ask.

“We are all in a vulnerable situation with the pandemic at the moment so our ask is that members of the public would not use power-washers, hosepipes, sprinklers on the lawn or filling paddling pools.

“All those uses of water are not essential at this point in time and given the serious nature of the situation, we are really appealing to the public to conserve water.

She said that “if we all work together” we will be able to maintain water supply for critical use in the coming weeks.