Retail market responds to drought with new arm for the Retailer Wholesaler Group

The Retailer Wholesaler Group has formed a new drought subgroup, in response to ongoing drought conditions and temporary use bans (TUBs).

A report in the September issue of MOSL’s Market Focus newsletter explained: "The purpose of the group is to provide guidance on how statutory and discretionary exceptions are granted to non-household customers under temporary use bans restrictions. The aim is to provide clarity for retailers and non-household customers on which customers are granted what exception for what activity and how this is consistent or varies between wholesaler regions.” The group is chaired by Yorkshire Water’s Matt Rix.

MOSL, this summer, released a Drought Restriction dashboard and map that uses enriched CMOS data to show non-household supply points and average water consumption by drought restriction category. MOSL reported as its ‘monthly market statistic’ in Market Focus: “As of 1 September, 428,271 water supply points (31% of the non-household market total), normally consuming 21,400 megalitres a month, were in water supply zones that had activated temporary usage (hosepipe) bans.”