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

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the resilience of reservoirs during recent heatwaves.

The Government is committed improving water resilience. With increasing demand and the climate changing, the need for investment in resilient water supply infrastructure is necessary to meet our future needs.

Water companies have the statutory duty to provide a secure supply of water and set out how they plan to continue to do this through statutory Water Resources Management Plans (WRMPs). WRMPs set out how each company will maintain resilient water supplies for at least the next 25 years. Within their WRMPs, companies consider all options, including improved demand management and a mix of new water resources infrastructure, such as reservoirs, large scale water transfers, desalination and water recycling. The EA has published a summary of new water infrastructure planned by the water companies: Appendix C: Revised draft water resources management plans supply options - GOV.UK (see attached).