Current situation
A hosepipe ban is now in force for a large part of North West England. This includes cities and towns such as Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, Blackpool, Blackburn, Kendal and Penrith. This was introduced on the 9 July and bans the use of hosepipes and sprinklers being used to water private gardens and wash private cars. This will affect 6.5 million people. The hosepipe ban has been put in place to conserve water supplies as we do not know how long the drought will last.
The dry conditions together with the recent hot weather has caused numerous impacts on the environment in Wales and North West England as river levels are low for the time of year. We have rescued fish from several rivers where levels dropped so low fish became trapped. We have increased our monitoring of the environment.
In South West, North East and central England, there is also a risk to the environment if below average rainfall and hot, dry conditions continue.
For the rest of England, the risk of drought remains low, but this could change if the weather remains dry.
Both United Utilities and the Environment Agency have activated their drought action plans to respond to the current conditions.
Use our incident hotline to report an incident, such as trapped fish by telephoning 0800 80 70 60
View our latest drought brief from the link below:
Why is there a risk of drought this summer?
Wales, North West and central England had a dry start to 2010 with below average rainfall every month so far. From January to May the North West and Wales had their driest first five months since 1929 and 1976 respectively. The past three months have been particularly dry with these areas only receiving around 65 to 75 per cent of long term average rainfall.
The below average rainfall in North West England, especially in the Lake District, has meant United Utilities reservoir levels are below average for this time of year. Reservoir levels are declining at a rate that is similar to the 1995/96 drought. However, any substantial rainfall could reverse this position.
Hot dry spells are a normal part of most summers and the Environment Agency, water companies and other water users such as farmers and industry do plan to cope with these without restrictions on water use.
A drought happens when a period of low rainfall leads to a shortage of water. We must conserve water because we can't predict how long a drought will last.
Restrictions on public water use in a drought
Water companies can use various ways to reduce demand for water. See below to check if any restrictions are in place. See our types of restrictions on public water use during a drought webpage which explains how water companies can reduce how much water you can use.
Hosepipe and sprinkler bans
United Utilities (the water company covering North West) has a hosepipe and sprinkler ban in place.
Non-essential use drought orders
No water company has a non-essential use drought order in place.
Irrigation status
There are currently no spray irrigation restrictions in place. Conditions on irrigation licences still apply.
We have powers to enforce restrictions on spray irrigation during periods of drought under Section 57 of the Water Resources Act (1991) as amended by the Environment Act (1995) and the Water Act (2003). These are often referred to as “Section 57 restrictions”.
Most abstraction licences for spray irrigation now contain conditions where the licence holder has to reduce or stop abstracting water once the river has dropped to a certain level. Some older licenses don't have these restrictions and in these cases we use section 57 of the Water Resources Act 1991 to impose restrictions when necessary.
Further Information
We produce monthly water situation reports. They are based on our, Met. Office and water company data. They provide information on rainfall, soil moisture deficit, river flows, groundwater levels and reservoir storage over the previous month.
For more details on drought management, view our report:
