England braced for drastic water rationing next year as drought deepens

Experts warn Britain faces sever shortages as aging reservoirs, chronic leaks and a bone-dry winter leave us facing the prospect of taps running dry

England is staring down the barrel of the most severe water crisis in decades, with emergency plans being thrashed out behind closed doors amid growing fears that the country could quite literally run dry next year.

After months of parched landscapes, dwindling reservoirs and a winter forecast to be worryingly short on rain, ministers and water company chiefs have begun quietly drawing up drastic curtailment measures that insiders say will go “beyond hosepipe bans.”

Drought impact

One senior executive, speaking to the Guardian, admitted they were “extremely concerned” about the Met Office’s expectation of lower-than-average winter rainfall, warning that a major shortfall would leave companies with no choice but to impose severe restrictions.

It is a chilling prospect in a nation that has not built a major reservoir in more than 30 years—a staggering failure in a long run of incredible water company mismanagement.

This summer’s drought tightened its grip on vast swathes of England, but the situation could have been far worse had the previous autumn and winter not been unusually wet, topping up groundwater and filling reservoirs.

Low on reserves

Those reserves have now been largely exhausted after months of record-breaking dryness, and they have not bounced back. Reservoirs sit at just 63.3% capacity, well below the 76% seasonal average. Some—including Ardingly in West Sussex and Clatworthy and Wimbleball in Somerset—have plunged below a shocking 30%.

Groundwater levels, which take far longer to replenish, remain dangerously low. South East Water has already applied for a local water restriction order banning certain business uses such as cleaning buildings or filling hotel pools—a taste of what may be to come.

“In UK drought management terms, a second dry winter is when things start to get serious,” warned Alastair Chisholm of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management. “More drought orders… more hosepipe bans and likely restrictions on some business water use.”

Yet England’s fragile water resilience—a perfect storm of population growth, hotter summers, climate-driven extremes and decades of underinvestment—leaves experts asking how the country has been allowed to drift into such peril.

Chisholm said new reservoirs alone won’t solve the crisis, arguing that fixing leaks, installing smart meters and boosting water-efficiency standards could be done “very quickly.” He added: “Whilst government has been fixated on announcing new reservoirs it’s been far less proactive… This is nonsensical.”

Further concerns looming

The Met Office’s Dr Will Lang reported England has received only “61% of its expected annual rainfall,” adding that recovery is far from assured.

Hydrologists are sounding the alarm, warning that England now needs “exceptional rainfall all winter just to recover,” as Prof Hannah Cloke put it. With some reservoirs holding less than a third of their normal capacity, she said: “That tells you how serious the water resource deficit really is.”

And the starkest warning yet: if the dry conditions persist into spring and summer, England may face the unthinkable—taps running dry in parts of the country.