16/04/12
With the drought already affecting the South East, East Anglia and parts of Yorkshire, the Environment Agency has announced today that the South West and Midlands regions are the latest to move to environmental drought status after long periods of exceptionally low rainfall.
The counties affected include Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Derbyshire, Dorset, Gloucestershire, parts of Hampshire, Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, the West Midlands, Wiltshire and Worcestershire
However, the announcement by the environmental regulator does not bring any new restrictions from local water companies at this stage. There remain seven water companies in the South and East of England that have introduced temporary use restrictions.
These are carefully planned steps to conserve available supplies, and form part of long term water resource and drought management plans. The seven companies are Anglian Water, South East Water, Southern Water, Sutton and East Surrey Water, Veolia South East and Veolia Central.
Local water companies and the Environment Agency, continue to ask businesses and household consumers to use water as carefully as possible, even where no restrictions currently apply. Working successfully together now, will mean that there is more water available for people and the environment in the coming months.
How the water companies are managing the environmental drought
