Severe drought declared in six England areas — SkimNews
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- Six areas of England — parts of Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex, and West Sussex — have been moved into severe drought following the UK's hottest summer on record, with the south-east and south-west recording their driest April-to-September in more than a century.
- Two reservoirs are at critically low levels: Ardingly reservoir, serving about 95,000 properties in Haywards Heath and Uckfield, is only 19% full, while Wimbleball, supplying South West Water and Wessex Water customers in Devon, Somerset and Dorset, is at 16% — against an expected 75% at this time of year.
- Smaller South West Water reservoirs are also strained: Drift and Stithians supply 56,000 households in Cornwall, and the Tottiford and Venford group supplies 47,000 households in Devon.
- Environment Secretary Angela Eagle has not yet approved requests from South East Water, South West Water, and Southern Water to ban non-essential commercial water users — including golf clubs, private schools, and commercial car washes — despite calling on water companies to step up drought planning.
- Water minister Emma Hardy instructed the Environment Agency to prioritise protecting public water supplies in severe-drought areas "where there is an unavoidable trade-off" against environmental rules.
- The National Drought Group announced daily monitoring of reservoir and river levels plus heightened water-quality monitoring, citing lower dilution of sewage as a risk for pollution, and ordered more compliance checks on businesses that abstract water.
Why it matters: Public water supplies for roughly 200,000-plus households across the south depend on reservoirs currently at one-fifth capacity or less, and the government is signalling that environmental rules may be relaxed to keep taps running — yet it has not authorised the commercial restrictions water companies say they need. That leaves golf courses, private schools, and car washes still drawing water while households are urged to cut usage.
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