Global water Footprint

Thames Water has the highest number of customers out of all UK water providers, and it comes as no surprise that it has the highest daily water supply per person.

Serving 15 million customers across London and the Thames Valley, not all of Thames Water’s customers are household consumers. As the UK’s largest wholesale water and wastewater services provider, Thames Water has business and non-household customers including restaurants, supermarkets, hospitals and schools. On average, Thames Water supplies 467 litres per customer per day.

In second place, Northern Ireland is one of the UK regions using the most water per person. Northern Ireland Water supplies Northern Ireland with water for business and household purposes, and supplies on average 560 million litres of water every day to around 1.8 million customers.

The high water usage by Northern Ireland Water comes as no surprise. In 2020 and in 2021, Northern Ireland Water urged its customers to reduce their water usage over fears of demand outstripping the available supply of fresh water. In 2021 the company predicted some customers could suffer a complete loss of water supply if regular usage continues.

Cambridge and St Ives take third place with the small region using one of the highest daily water supplies of 277 litres of water per person. The region is supplied by Cambridge Water and services 300,000 customers in Cambridge and St Ives to the north west, giving it one of the smallest customer bases of the suppliers we looked at.

Cambridge Water provides water for both commercial and household use, supplying customers with 83 million litres of water a day.