Drought Group Moves to Weekly Meetings as Crisis Deepens
England’s National Drought Group is moving to weekly meetings as conditions worsen, with 71.3 per cent of the country now in drought after the driest July in 190 years and five heatwaves. Reservoir levels have fallen to 62.6 per cent and the Environment Agency has logged 226 drought-related incidents, including algal blooms and fish deaths. Nine water companies have imposed restrictions affecting around 29 million customers.
The shift to weekly coordination marks an escalation from the emergency Cobra meeting chaired earlier, and reflects how a run of record-dry months has drained the country’s reserves faster than they can recover. Britain’s ageing water network, which loses vast quantities to leaks and has not completed a major reservoir in decades, is poorly equipped for a drier, more volatile climate. River flows are now below those seen in the 2022 ‘flash drought’, and the ecological toll — algal blooms, low flows, fish deaths — is mounting. Officials warn that parched ground also raises flash-flood risk when rain returns. Watch whether restrictions tighten further into the autumn.