Droughts and Water Supply

(asked on 2nd September 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to (a) mitigate the impact of droughts and (b) improve water security.


Answered by
Mark Spencer Portrait
Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 8th September 2022

Despite the dry summer, water companies have assured us that essential water supplies remain resilient across the country. It is their duty to maintain those supplies. Defra ministers have called for water company action in accordance with their pre-agreed drought plans.

The Environment Agency (EA) has activated its drought incident management plans as part of its role to balance the needs of water companies, other abstractors and the environment. EA has implemented restrictions on 270 spray irrigation abstraction licence holders to restrict abstraction to 50% of their licensed quantity. Over 1000 “hands-off” flow constraints are in place to protect the environment and the most critical abstractions.

The National Drought Group, made up of senior decision-makers from the government, the EA, water companies and key representative groups is meeting regularly to agree the actions required to manage the current impacts of the drought and reduce the risks into next year.

The National Framework for Water Resources, published in March 2020, sets out the strategic water needs for England to 2050 and beyond. The Framework sets out how we will reduce demand, halve leakage rates, develop new water supply infrastructure, move water to where it’s needed, increase drought resilience of water supplies and reduce the need for drought measures that can harm the environment.

Water companies are also using the £469 million made available by Ofwat in the current Price Review period (2019-2024) to improve the resilience of England’s water supplies. In the Autumn 2022, water companies will publish their statutory draft Water Resources Management Plans for consultation, which set out how they will secure water supplies in the long term.

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