Find out how much water is available in your area by viewing our Catchment abstraction management strategies (CAMS)
We are responsible for managing water resources in England and Wales. We need to make sure there is enough water for people (public water supply, industry and agriculture) and a healthy environment.
We control how much water is taken with our permitting system. We regulate existing licences and grant new ones.
CAMS uses the Environmental Flow Indicator (EFI) to help identify where the amount of water abstracted or licensed exceeds the available water in a catchment.
We developed CAMS following the government's decision to apply more control on how much water is taken from our water sources (rivers, reservoirs, lakes and so on). Our first water resource assessment using CAMS methodology began in April 2001 and ended in March 2008. CAMS:
- assesses how much water is reliably available on a catchment by catchment basis
- introduces time-limited licences - this means we can periodically review them to determine whether to replace them or not and if so, what conditions we should apply to them
We have updated our CAMS process:
- to help make sure we safeguard water resources despite the increasing pressures on water availability from climate change and population growth
- to make sure catchment management is integrated so that impacts on water resources and the water environment are managed together
We have now finished the latest resource assessments and we will use this information to help our water management decision making. We are now producing the next set of catchment strategies. These will be available from this website when they are finished.
Download our new publication Managing Water Abstraction which sets out the national approach and regulatory framework within which we will manage water resources:
To see how much water is available in your area, view your local CAMS:
