Drought orders spark controversy

Amid the bank holiday heatwave and ongoing persistent dry conditions, water companies and the Environment Agency (EA) are following their response plans and increasingly looking to drought actions alongside demand management controls and encouragements. 

Some issues arising in the last week were: 

• The Environment Agency issued a drought permit that will allow Yorkshire Water to extract additional water from the River Wharfe at Lobwood, near Ilkley, and reduce how much water is released from the Grimworth Reservoir to top up natural flows within the river. This runs from 22 August and will last until 22 February 2026. The River Wharfe at Ilkley is one of only a handful of designated inland bathing waters, and the EA noted that the drought permit will mean a reduced amount of water in the designated bathing water. This could feed through as lower-quality swimming conditions.

  
  

• Southern Water has applied for a drought order for the River Test. This would allow it to continue abstracting usual volumes of water despite the lower flows in the chalk river. A public hearing is scheduled for Thursday, regarding both the drought order and Southern’s application for a Non-Essential Use Ban (which would mostly affect business customers). A hosepipe ban is already in place for Hampshire. Southern clarified, following what it described as “misleading media coverage”, that the application is a contingency precaution which would only be needed in a worst case scenario.

  
  

• The Amwell Magna Fishery in Hertfordshire, chaired by Feargal Sharkey, has warned it will take legal action if the EA continues to allow reduced flows in the River Lea between Ware and Stanstead Abbotts, warning of damage to fish life (especially rare brown trout) and the aquatic system. According to reports, a legal letter from the fishery cites 156m litres of water typically flow each day in the Lea, but this was cut to 66m litres in June. It has requested a return to usual conditions.