Water company bosses update National Drought Group on resilience

Water company chief executives were called before the National Drought Group yesterday to update on the actions they are taking to protect customer supplies after government instructed daily monitoring of reservoir and river levels.

Bosses set out measures being taken to protect customer supplies after severe drought was declared in parts of England last week, including sending less water from reservoirs into local rivers and reducing water pressure, where appropriate, overnight.  

Water companies are also speeding up leak detection and working to transfer water from elsewhere in the network to support the lowest reservoirs. These steps come after the government told water companies and the Environment Agency to put public supplies first. 

Water Minister Emma Hardy, who chaired yesterday’s meeting, said:   

Having instructed water companies to carry out daily monitoring of reservoir and river levels, while improving water quality checks, it’s right that the National Drought Group has now heard directly from water company bosses on the action they’re taking. 

It’s encouraging that these efforts are starting to ease the pressure on public supplies, but water companies must continue to step up their efforts, and we will keep holding them to account. 

While customer water supplies will not be interrupted, declaring a severe drought allowed us to ensure proactive steps are taken to safeguard water.

Although water companies remain responsible for maintaining public water supplies, we can all help by thinking about ways to use water wisely over the coming weeks.

The National Drought Group heard that while the first half of October has been dry, wet weather is also expected to spread in later this week which could help water resources. The Environment Agency has said at least 120% of average rainfall is needed over the next six months for the country to be considered out of drought by the start of spring.