Wake up to the water crisis

• Prolonged dry weather
• Drought
• Severe drought
• Recovering from drought

The North West of England, Yorkshire and East and West Midlands are now in drought status, with Yorkshire Water among others implementing a temporary use ban on hosepipes for washing cars and watering gardens.

Elsewhere in England, the North East, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, East Anglia, Thames, Wessex, the Solent and South Downs are in prolonged dry weather status. 

Agricultural water abstractors, particularly in East Anglia, are challenged by abstraction licence cessations, meaning farmers are unable to continue to abstract water to irrigate crops. The impact of this is significant, and likely to be seen in yield reductions, future implications for soil health, and, ultimately, income.

In Scotland, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency uses a similar measurement to the EA, though its scale stretches across five levels:

• Normal conditions
• Early warning
• Alert
• Moderate scarcity
• Significant scarcity

Currently, there are six areas across Scotland in moderate scarcity, with four in alert status and the rest of the country in early warning status or normal conditions.

Natural Resources Wales categories by:

• Normal
• Prolonged dry weather
• Drought
• Recovery from drought

Currently all areas have prolonged dry weather status apart from the South West which is classed as in recovery.

It is clear that water scarcity isn’t isolated to just a few regions; it is a nationwide issue, and it isn’t new either.

A comparison with 1976

The current drought situation is being compared to that of 1976 and my dad often recalls ’76 as the driest year in his farming career – although he is quick to mention that it started in June 1975: a dry summer followed by a dry winter which then rolled into a dry year to come.

There was no resilience in the system to support two dry years and he vividly remembers walking out for the 4 am milking and it being unbelievably hot even at that time of the day.

He doesn’t recall a huge impact on milk yield as water was available to the cows through troughs in every field and the cows spent their time lying down with minimal movement. The challenges for him were around limited grass growth.

And a comparison with 2022

I remember the drought of 2022. 

I had started working for the NFU as their National Water Resources Specialist in January of that year and drought was declared only a few months later. 

It was a steep learning curve of understanding that the agricultural sector did not have a drought plan; that there were no supportive measures for agricultural abstraction to allow abstraction to continue through this period; and, that while agricultural abstraction was being curtailed and in some situations stopped, we could in many areas of the UK continue to wash cars and water plants with hosepipes – often coming from the same water source as that inaccessible to the agriculture sector which needed it to produce food.

The need for collective responsibility

As the Environment Secretary, Steve Reed, has recently said, the water sector is a “priority for economic growth”. This is my plea to farmers, land managers, water companies, the supply chain, retailers and every member of the public: we have to take water seriously. We must take collective responsibility.

Climate change cannot continue to be a term seen and ignored. What was predicted 25 years ago has come to fruition: increased temperatures, warmer, drier summers and warmer, wetter winters.

We need to be ready for what the experts are predicting for 2050 and beyond, including finding an extra 5bn litres per day by 2055 in England for drinking water alone. Once the requirements of the other UK nations and additional industry demand, such as that from agriculture, energy and data centres, are added to the equation, the challenge is considerable.

Further information is available from:

• The Environment Agency water situation monthly reports.
• SEPA Water Scarcity Reports.
• Support from the Environment Agency.
• Farming Advice Service reports on irrigation prospects.
• Savills grant funding information.
• Natural Resources Wales.

Further information

Contact Kelly Hewson-Fisher