A drought is to be declared in large areas of England after a meeting of experts, The Guardian has learned.
Prolonged drought conditions, with some areas of the country not receiving significant rainfall all summer, have prompted the National Drought Group to declare an official drought, according to leaked documents from a meeting seen by The Guardian on Friday.
The Environment Agency will enter drought in eight of its 14 areas: Devon and Cornwall, Solent and South Downs, Kent and South London, Herts and North London, East Anglia, Thames, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire and the East Midlands.
Leaked documents show they expect two more areas to go into drought by the end of August. These are Yorkshire and the West Midlands.
The group met earlier this summer to discuss the lack of rain and decided to put the country in a “prolonged dry weather state”, the first of four stages of a dry weather emergency and a step before the drought Now, the country has moved to the second stage.
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This means water rationing can take place across the country, with fewer barriers to water companies wanting to ban customers from using hoses and washing their cars with tap water.
More severe measures can also be put in place at this stage, including a ban on the use of sprinklers for cleaning buildings, vehicles and windows.
The group contains 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 Inspectorate of Drinking Water, as well as the Angling Trust and the Rivers Trust.
Members of the National Drought Group have shown alarming data revealing that river flows in many basins are expected to be lower than they were in 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 that it takes months of much higher than average rainfall to recharge the rivers.
The arid climate has left reservoirs across the country at very low levels and rivers are drying up. Experts are prepared for the situation to be 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 remarkably or exceptionally low, and hydrological forecasts suggest that this situation will persist during the coming months.
“Where river flows are supported by groundwater recharge during the winter months, the impact of dry weather is reduced. But a continuation of below-average rainfall in a second winter would likely result in a severe hydrologic and environmental drought, with further intensification of water supply restrictions and fish rescues that we are beginning to see in the Southeast.”
The last time a drought was announced was in 2018, when water companies across the country instituted hose bans. Although research has yet to be carried out to determine whether this year’s drought was caused by a climate breakdown, the Met Office found that dry conditions and extreme heat in 2018 were 30 times more likely due to climate change.
Scotland and Wales have similar drought response groups, which are also understood to be meeting this summer after drier than usual conditions.