Overview

• The National Drought Group reports five English regions in drought and six more under prolonged dry weather as reservoirs decline to about two thirds of capacity and nearly half of rivers flow below normal levels.
• Some water suppliers, including Southern Water, have applied for emergency abstraction orders and proposed non-essential use bans to bolster dwindling supplies.
• Ministers led by Water Minister Emma Hardy warned they will hold companies to account for delayed drought plans and are pursuing a £104 billion ‘Plan for Change’ to fund new reservoirs and cut network leaks.
• The drought is already impacting agriculture and ecosystems by reducing crop yields, depleting livestock feed, harming wetlands and straining fire services as wildfires rise.
• Officials are urging households to adopt measures from installing water butts to deleting old emails—which eases data-centre cooling demands—to conserve water.