Most of the UK’s rivers are on “red alert”, according to the UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH), as campaigners say “our rivers are dying” and call for immediate bans on hoses throughout the country.
This summer, water companies have come under intense criticism for their apparent failure to plan for the drought and deal with their leaky pipes. Sarah Bentley, the chief executive of Thames Water, received a bonus of £496,000 last year, which is almost double the performance-related pay of the previous year, and a pay rise to £750,000 from £438,000 in 2020-21, as shown in the annual accounts. .
Sources at Thames Water have ruled out announcing a hose ban this weekend despite the dry state of rivers in southern England.
Most water companies have not banned excessive water use, such as watering gardens and washing cars with hoses, but river experts hope UKCEH’s August forecast will spur them into action. The Rivers Trust has accused water companies of waiting until the last minute to implement bans to avoid backlash from customers. Only two so far, Southern Water and South East Water, have announced hose bans.
Last month was England’s driest July for over 100 years and some areas have had their driest summer on record. According to the latest forecasts, rivers are at the most severe drought alert level across the country, even in areas that have seen rain in recent weeks. For many, it is almost certain that the flow will be the lowest it has been this century.
Forecasts show major rivers such as the Avon and Waveney flowing more slowly than during the droughts of 2011 and 2006, when pipe bans were in place in many parts of the country. In Scotland, rivers such as the Tyne and Tweed are expected to flow much more slowly than usual.
Next week, the government and UKCEH will produce a report based on these forecasts which will look at how serious the situation is in the UK, with rivers drying up.
Activists are hoping for an urgent action plan to be put in place, fearing that the rivers could suffer long-term effects from the lack of water.
Last month, the Environment Agency’s National Drought Group, made up of groups of farmers, environmental experts and representatives of government agencies, met to discuss the response. They were supposed to meet in October, but the meeting was brought forward due to the drastic conditions. However, the government does not enforce hose bans, leaving that up to the water companies. He can give advice and has asked for further action to be taken.
But charities don’t think that’s good enough. Josh Jones, senior technical analyst at the Rivers Trust, said: “It just goes to show that we need to implement management. Without managing demand when there’s limited supply, we’re going to have rivers and river wildlife going at a moment’s notice difficult. First, we need to stem the flow of water in rivers and replenish soil moisture, and we need more wetlands that also store water. Water companies should institute hose bans across the country and they should be proactive rather than retroactive, this problem is long in the making. Even if we look at a 12 month average, rainfall is below average across the country. This problem was predictable “.
A spokesman for the Angling Trust said: “We are not sugarcoating it, our rivers are dying. The situation is farcical, predictable and entirely the result of our abject failure to plan this country properly. There have been no new reservoirs built in the south of England since 1976, coincidentally responding to the last major drought, but since then millions more people have been living here and using ever more water.With the impacts of climate change being felt here and now, the government and the water companies know this is coming. Yet they have prioritized profits over the needs of our environment and wildlife.”
The consequences for nature could be dire because of this lack of action, he added. He said: “We’re seeing an increasing amount of fish kills, lack of oxygen and lack of water, and we have to deal with that on top of the pollution that’s going into our rivers. And the lack of water it is killing our chalk streams, which we have a global responsibility to protect. Many of them, from the Pang in Berkshire to the Ver in Hertfordshire, no longer flow for long stretches of their upper reaches, some of the most important habitats for to wild life.
“Reducing demand and introducing hose bans is important. We’re in a drought, it’s a crisis, we all have to do our part. But all of this is just plaster. What we’re experiencing is the new normal. We need urgent action and a much faster response from government, regulators and water companies.”
Thames Water told the Guardian that its crews had been working around the clock to maintain water supplies, but that if the drought continues, water-saving measures, including restrictions, may be necessary. The company has a statutory drought plan and implemented the first stage of this plan in May, which was a media campaign with tips to save water.
“The next stage of the plan would be to introduce a temporary ban on use which will likely include hosepipes. The timing will depend on the amount of water used by our customers, which determines the rate at which reservoir storage declines and amount of flow in rivers, which determines how much water we can take to fill them,” said Thames Water.
He added: “Customers can really help us with this long-term planning by using water wisely, only using what they need.”
The Guardian has approached Defra for comment.