Overview

• Recent data expose reservoirs at critically low levels after England’s driest spring since 1893, prompting drought declarations in North West England and Yorkshire.
• The Environment Agency forecasts that climate change, an eight-million population increase and surging industrial demand from food production to data centres will drive the shortfall.
• Officials say water companies must halve the current 2.7 billion-litre daily leakage and curb household and business usage to deliver 60 percent of required savings.
• The government has secured £104 billion in private investment over the next five years to build new reservoirs, desalination plants and water transfer schemes.
• The public is urged to take simple measures such as shortening showers, running full appliances and deleting old emails to ease pressure on water-intensive services.