Prolonged droughts, with some parts of the country not receiving significant rainfall all summer, have prompted the National Drought Team to declare an official drought, according to leaked documents from a meeting on Friday seen by the Guardian. The Environment Agency will go into drought in eight of its 14 regions: Devon and Cornwall, Solent and South Downs, Kent and south London, Herts and north London, East Anglia, Thames, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire and East Midlands. The leaked documents show they expect two more areas to go into drought later in August. These are Yorkshire and the West Midlands. The group met earlier this summer to discuss the lack of rainfall and decided to put the country in a “prolonged dry weather state”, the first of four stages of extreme drought and a step before drought. Now, the country has been overthrown in the second stage. The most important stories on the planet. Get all the week’s environmental news – the good, the bad and the must-haves Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. This means that water rationing can take place across the country, with fewer obstacles for water companies wishing to ban customers from using hoses and washing the car with tap water. More stringent measures can also be taken at this stage, including banning the use of sprayers to clean buildings, vehicles and windows. The group includes representatives from water companies, the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, the Environment Agency, the National Farmers’ Union, Natural England, CCW, Ofwat, Water UK and the Drinking Water Inspectorate, as well as the Angling Trust and Rivers Trust. Members of the National Drought Task Force have come across alarming data revealing that river flows in many watersheds are projected to decline from 2011, which was a very dry year. Even with heavy rainfall in the early months of 2012, river flows remained low that summer. This means months of much higher than average rainfall are required to fill the rivers. The dry weather means reservoirs across the country are at very low levels and rivers are drying up. Experts are ready for the situation to become even more serious. Catherine Sefton, hydrologist at the UK’s Center for Ecology and Hydrology, said: “In south-east England, continued dry weather means that many river flows remain significantly or extremely low, and hydrological forecasts suggest that this will remain the case for the coming months. . “Where river flows are supported by groundwater recharge during the winter months, the impact of dry weather is reduced. But continued below-average rainfall in a second winter will likely lead to severe hydrological and environmental drought, further intensifying the water supply constraints and fish rescues we are beginning to see in the Southeast.” The last time a drought was declared was in 2018, when pipe bans from water companies went into effect across the country. Although research has not yet been carried out to determine whether this year’s drought was caused by climate collapse, the dry conditions and extreme heat in 2018 were found by the Met Office to be 30 times more likely to be due to climate change. Scotland and Wales have similar drought response teams, which are also expected to meet this summer after drier than usual conditions.
