Drought officially declared across London
The National Drought Group says it also covers parts of the South, South West, East and central England.
Last updated 12th Aug 2022
A drought has been declared for parts of England - including across the Thames region - following the driest summer for 50 years.
The conditions, which have almost completely deprived some areas of rainfall all summer, have prompted the National Drought Group to move parts of the South West, parts of southern and central England, and the East of England into official drought status.
Thames Water has already announced a hosepipe ban - but more water-saving measures could be introduced. However, the Environment Agency has reassured the public that essential water supplies are safe.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has issued a statement following the move to drought status:
The NDG is made up of representatives from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), water companies, the Environment Agency (EA), the National Farmers' Union (NFU), Natural England, Consumer Council for Water, water services regulator Ofwat, Water UK and the Drinking Water Inspectorate, as well as the Angling Trust and the Rivers Trust.
Eight of 14 areas designated by the EA have now moved to "drought", the second stage, including Devon and Cornwall, Solent and South Downs, Kent and South London, Herts and North London, East Anglia, Thames, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, and East Midlands.
**We’ve been preparing for a potential drought this summer since the winter last year.**
We've also had a statement from Thames Water, which reads:
“We’ve been preparing for a potential drought this summer since the winter last year. We made good use of abstractions earlier in the year to fill our reservoirs in London and accelerated maintenance work on the QE2 reservoir in London which has provided more storage over the past dry months. We have also worked closely with the Environment Agency to keep our Thames Valley storage at Farmoor Reservoir topped up as much as possible. In May we launched a media campaign urging customers to use water efficiently.
“The prolonged hot weather and ongoing lack of rain has meant that we are now planning to take our drought plan to the next stage which is to introduce a temporary use ban. We anticipate announcing the details next week. In the meantime we continue to urge our customers to only use what they need for their essential use."
It comes after the driest July on record for some areas and the driest first half of the year since 1976.
The total stock of water in England's reservoirs at the end of July was 65% of its normal capacity - the lowest level for that point in the calendar year since 1995, the EA said.
More than two-thirds of reservoirs or groups of reservoirs in England saw their stock of water drop by more than 10% between the end of June and the end of July.