England water restrictions this winter, Digi Mart USA News (England): Tougher water use restrictions could be introduced across the south of England this winter to prevent homes from running out of water next year. On Friday, Wessex Water became the latest water company to apply for permission to restrict businesses’ water usage to prevent a “day zero” scenario in which the public water supply runs dry.
The majority of England remains in drought, and parts of the south are in severe drought following an exceptionally dry and hot summer. The Environment Agency has warned that above-average rainfall is needed over the coming months to replenish reservoirs.
Although October rainfall was above average, reservoir levels remain significantly below normal. November has started exceptionally dry, and the outlook for winter rainfall remains uncertain.
As a result, water companies are considering a range of measures, including restrictions on businesses and taking more water from rivers, to shore up their supply.
Water Minister Emma Hardy said: “Despite the recent rain, the situation remains serious. As we move through autumn and winter, we now face the challenge of having drought and flood simultaneously as the rain struggles to be absorbed by the hardened ground.”
Approximately 30 million households across the south and east of England are currently affected by hosepipe bans. The next stage of restrictions would be non-essential use bans (NEUB) for businesses, which would limit car washing, watering sports pitches, cleaning office windows with a hosepipe and filling private swimming pools.
On Friday, Wessex became the fourth water company to apply to the Government for permission to introduce these restrictions. It followed applications from South East Water and South West Water in October, and one from Southern Water in July.
If approved, Wessex’s restrictions would cover its entire operating area, which includes most of Dorset, Somerset and Bristol, as well as most of Wiltshire and parts of Hampshire and Gloucestershire.
South East Water’s restrictions would cover parts of Sussex, while South West Water’s would cover parts of Devon and Dorset. Southern Water’s restrictions would cover parts of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Environment Secretary Angela Eagle has not yet decided on any of the applications and is understood to be waiting to see whether the situation deteriorates further.
In its application, known as a Drought Order, Wessex Water said the NEUB may be needed due to the “serious deficiency” of water in its reservoirs, which fell to 23.4 per cent capacity in mid-October. The reservoirs have since risen to 28 per cent following recent rainfall, but Wessex said the restrictions may still be needed to prevent more severe measures next year if winter is dry.
Those more severe measures could include standpipes in streets or rota cuts to the water supply in a worst-case scenario. Other companies face similar pressures.
Richard Stanbrook, South West Water’s Drought Programme Director, said recent rainfall was having a “positive impact” but that “pressure on supply remains significant.”
Nick Price, Head of Water Resources at South East Water, said the company had applied for an NEUB as a “precaution… so that this option could be available should conditions deteriorate.” Wessex Water said reservoir levels had triggered “emergency planning activities” for a “day zero” situation in which water supply could be lost.
The phrase “day zero” is used internationally by regulators to plan for a date when households in a city or region would run out of water and have to collect water rations from communal areas. The Environment Agency has stressed that nowhere in the UK is close to reaching “day zero” in the coming months, although experts say the use of the phrase demonstrates the severity of the situation.
Alastair Chisholm, water policy lead at the consultancy Arup, said: “The term day zero is quite an alarming term and has its roots in experiences in other countries where they have come really close to there not being water to supply public networks.” He said water companies have many measures to avoid reaching that point, including abstracting more water from the environment and the business restrictions now being sought.
The Environment Agency limits how much water can be taken from rivers and other natural sources to protect the environment, but those limits can be suspended during drought. This is already happening across the country, and water companies continue to apply for changes to their licenses.
Last week, South West Water applied for permission to abstract additional water from the River Fowey in Cornwall to “mitigate against the potential threat to public water supply that could materialise in late summer 2027 under dry condition.”
The company acknowledged the proposals would affect the environment, including the migration of Atlantic salmon and sea trout, but said the action would help prevent “more environmentally damaging interventions during 2027.” Chisholm added: “The environment will be a loser if push comes to shove. They will have to increase abstraction levels into levels that are really not good for the environment.”
