Five reservoirs in England and Wales ‘exceptionally low’ as drought persists

Five key reservoirs across England and Wales are “exceptionally low” as drought and extreme heat piles pressure on public water supply that is likely to continue into the autumn. Most of Europe has endured back-to-back climate crisis-driven heatwaves this summer. The extreme heat, coupled with strikingly little rainfall, means almost three-quarters of England and the whole of Wales is now in drought.

Environment Agency data from 11 August shows five key reservoirs are now “exceptionally low”. Wimbleball reservoir, operated by South West Water, is less than half full, at 46%. The other four that are “exceptionally low” are Clatworthy in Somerset (48%), Hanningfield in Essex (56%), Clywedog in Powys (56%), and the Dove group in Derbyshire (69%).

Across England, total reservoir levels have fallen to 66%, down from 69% last week and nearly 14 percentage points lower than expected for this time of year. Of the 32 reservoirs the Environment Agency classifies as strategically important or geographically representative, just four are classed as at normal levels. These are Draycote Water in Warwickshire, Bewl in Kent, Roadford in Devon and Vyrnwy in Powys.

Reservoirs are essential for the security of water supply, providing drinking water to millions of people. In its latest summary published on Thursday, the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme said aridity in July had been “unprecedented” and that “widespread below-normal to exceptionally low” water flows were likely to persist well into the autumn, with “further deterioration” likely. Alastair Chisholm, the lead for water policy, regulation and governance at the consultancy firm Arup, said with three droughts recorded in the past five years, the country was in “new territory”.

During last year’s drought, reservoir levels also fell to extremely low levels. By this time last year, the Pennines group and Yorkshire group reservoirs were less than 39% full, and experts say this cumulative impact is of particular concern. England and Wales rely on on reservoirs filling up over the winter – and this year’s particularly wet winter has meant the situation this summer is not as bad as it could have been.

Prof Liz Bentley, the chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, said the key concern now was how long the dry weather would continue. If we go through autumn and winter and have low rainfall, we could have real trouble,” she said. Mark Smith, the chair of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management’s water resources specialist panel, said that while winter rain helped, “ultimately you can only store so much”.