Current status
Normal: there is low risk of drought.
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.
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.
Hosepipe and sprinkler bans
No water company 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.
Floods and water management Bill
The draft Bill was published for consultation and pre-legislative scrutiny in April 2009. View our response to this.
Some of the Bill's aims are to improve flood risk management and ensure water supplies are more secure.
We expect the Bill will protect essential water supplies by enabling water companies to control more non-essential uses of water during droughts.
Further Information
For more details on drought management, view our report:
Water Situation Report
Details of the current water situation can be found in our 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.
Types of restrictions on public water use in a drought
We need to conserve water during a drought because we can't predict how long the drought will last. Water companies can use various ways to reduce demand for water.
