The summer of 2026 has gone into the record books. The UK has now passed 34 degrees on eight separate days in a single year, the first time that has happened since records began in 1884, with health alerts extended and wildfire warnings issued. Water companies are feeling it too: Severn Trent and others are reporting some of the highest demand they have ever seen, hundreds of millions of extra litres a day, and are asking customers to use less. Some parts of the country already have hosepipe restrictions in place.
It is not just about surviving the heat. It changes how we should be watering our gardens and managing water, and it is exactly where the right pump earns its place.
Irrigating when there is a hosepipe ban
The simplest way to keep a garden, allotment or smallholding alive without adding to mains demand, or falling foul of a hosepipe restriction, is to water from a source that is not the mains. A pump is what makes that practical, by taking stored or natural water and delivering it with enough pressure and flow to run a hose, sprinkler or drip system.
- Rainwater. Water saved in butts and tanks over wetter months is free and unrestricted. A pump pressurises it so it actually reaches the far end of the garden. See our rainwater harvesting pumps.
- A borehole or well. A private supply is a serious asset in a dry summer. Our well and borehole pumps lift water from depth for irrigation and garden use.
- A pond, stream or tank. Surface water can feed irrigation with the right transfer or booster pump.
For the pump itself, our irrigation pumps collection covers everything from a simple garden booster to a pump that will run several sprinklers. The two things that matter are pressure (head) for the sprinklers or drippers, and flow to cover the area, and we can help you match both; our guide to choosing a pump for irrigation walks through it.
One important note on taking water from the environment
If you are drawing water from a stream, river or borehole rather than a tank, be aware that abstraction can require a licence, and that in dry conditions restrictions can tighten. It is worth understanding the rules before you pump. We explain them in water abstraction licences explained, and the wider picture of a changing climate and stressed water resources in our piece on El Nino, water resources and pumps.
Do not forget your pond
Extreme heat is hard on ponds. Warm water holds much less dissolved oxygen than cool water, and at the same time fish and bacteria are using more of it, so oxygen levels can crash, especially overnight. Fish gasping at the surface on a hot morning is the warning sign. Keeping a pump running to move and break the surface adds oxygen back in, which is why, in this kind of weather, a pond pump should usually be left running continuously. We cover exactly this in should a pond pump run all the time.
The twist: baked ground makes flooding worse
Here is the part people miss. When the ground bakes hard and dry for weeks, it stops behaving like a sponge. So when the heat finally breaks and the rain comes, often as a heavy thunderstorm, the water cannot soak in. It runs straight off the surface, and that is when flash flooding happens, even after a drought. It is a pattern we see again and again.
So while everyone is rushing to buy air conditioning, a dry spell is actually a sensible moment to think about the opposite problem. If your property is at risk of surface water flooding, now is the time to check you are ready, before the storm, not during it. A puddle pump kept in the shed is cheap insurance against the downpour that follows a heatwave.
Where to get the right pump
floodandwaterpumps.co.uk is a specialist pump stockist, led by an environmental and engineering team, so whether you are setting up irrigation from a rainwater tank, protecting a pond through the heat, or getting ready for the floods that follow, we can specify the right pump and get it to you fast. Browse the irrigation pumps range, or call our engineers on 0115 987 0358.
