A severe drought has been officially declared across multiple regions in southern England following months of low rainfall and high water demand following the hottest summer on record. The Environment Agency announced the status update after a resource review with the National Drought Group.
Impacted Regions and Low Reservoir Levels
The heightened measures affect parts of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex, and West Sussex. Water levels have fallen at locations such as Wimbleball reservoir on Exmoor, with river levels described as "exceptionally low" as the drought bites. Lakes have become too shallow for water sports as levels drop, and farmers fear running out of water amid the drought conditions.
Government and Agency Response
While the government emphasized that customer supplies would be uninterrupted and that declaring a severe drought "ensures proactive steps are taken to safeguard water before any disruption occurs," ministers are taking proactive measures. Authorities have instructed water companies to conduct daily monitoring of reservoir and river levels, along with tougher water quality monitoring and any adjustments they could make to protect supplies.
Water companies are actively responding to the network strain. For example, South East Water, which supplies more than two million customers, stated that 92 repair crews were out across Sussex and Kent tackling leaks to minimise loss from the network.