In June, reservoirs nationwide were 76% full, lower than their level during the severe drought year of 2022, when they were 77% full at this time of year.
Because of the increasing demand for water brought on by the hot weather and the lack of rain to replenish reservoirs, levels are still dropping sharply.
Additionally, Dr. Jonathan Paul of the Royal Holloway, University of London’s Earth sciences department stated: “Local water use restrictions, such as hosepipe bans, may be required to stabilize reservoir levels, which are directly linked to rainfall.”
Following the region’s driest spring in 132 years, Yorkshire Water this week implemented hosepipe restrictions. A hosepipe ban for over a million residents in Kent and Sussex was also declared by South East Water on Friday.
Sources at the government’s national drought group told the Guardian that water executives have been hesitant to impose hosepipe bans because they believe it will negatively impact customer satisfaction ratings. The performance report of a water utility includes these ratings, which are gathered by the regulator.
The corporations were waiting “until the very last moment” to impose bans, according to sources at the drought group, which meets frequently to discuss drought response. River levels are already low, and any abstraction runs the danger of harming the ecosystem.
Steve Reed, the environment secretary, has been receiving advice from Environment Agency staff regarding the adequacy of water company drought plans. In order to have a quantifiable effect on lowering customer demand, they advised water utilities to adhere to their drought strategies and to implement hosepipe bans before obtaining permits for additional river abstraction.
Farmers’ ability to irrigate their property has been severely limited in some parts of the nation where there are no laws prohibiting hosepipes.
Tom Bradshaw, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, stated that this was “risking food production,” especially in East Anglia, where a large number of farms are located. This spring, the county experienced the third-lowest rainfall on record since 1871, causing groundwater and reservoir levels to decline. Residents are not prohibited from using hosepipes, but farmers have been finding it difficult to irrigate their fields.
“Abstraction bans have already been implemented in Norfolk with no prior engagement or warning,” Bradshaw told the Guardian. Without a formal drought or hosepipe ban, it seems absurd.
Currently, areas that depend more on reservoirs than groundwater are the ones most at risk of running out of water.
The country’s aquifers, or subsurface water, were able to recharge during the wet autumn and winter of 2024–2025. As a result, areas in the southeast, where the soil is chalk and the aquifers replenish more quickly, are in a better position than regions in the north and Midlands.
However, groundwater levels are already below normal in a large portion of the nation, and more dry weather may lead aquifer levels to start declining as well. “The outlook for July indicates that groundwater levels are likely to remain normal to below normal across most areas, with notably or exceptionally low levels expected to persist in some areas,” according to the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology’s most current outlook.
“Pressures on water supply are not limited to UK regions that rely primarily on reservoirs, but are also affecting areas like the central and south-east where supply is fed from groundwater sources,” Neumann continued. This is problematic because when the rains do eventually fall, groundwater supplies are not restored as rapidly [as rivers and reservoirs].
Reservoir levels in the country’s midland and northern regions have drastically decreased as a result of the extended dry spring and summer combined with hot weather, which raises consumer water demand.
While United Utilities’ reservoir levels are currently at 65%, they were at 84.5% at same time last year. Severn Trent’s reservoir levels have decreased from 83.5% on May 23 to 71.1% on June 30.
At 55.8%, Yorkshire’s reservoirs are more than 25% lower than they would typically be at this time of year.
Proposals to construct nine new reservoirs by 2050 were made public by the government and water firms last year. In England, no significant reservoirs have been finished since 1992, not long after the water industry was privatized.
“Water companies do everything possible to avoid restrictions on customers, including moving water around their region and surging activity on leakage,” a Water UK spokeswoman stated. Unfortunately, a temporary use ban must be put in place once the government-mandated trigger levels are reached.
Without immediate action, Britain may run out of drinking water due to rapid population growth, deteriorating infrastructure, and a changing environment, according to a spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs. In order to secure £104 billion in private sector investment to construct nine reservoirs and new pipes to stop leaks, we acted quickly and decisively.
Source : The Guardian
