15 October 2026: Severe Drought Update

The Government has declared severe drought in parts of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex and West Sussex.

The South East and South West have experienced their driest April to September in over a century, impacting reservoir levels in that area.

While customer water supplies will be uninterrupted, declaring a severe drought ensures proactive steps are taken to safeguard water before any disruption occurs.

The Government’s plans include:

Ministers instructing water companies to conduct daily monitoring of reservoir and river levels and tougher water quality monitoring;
The Environment Agency to increase compliance checks on businesses that withdraw water from natural sources to ensure they are only taking permitted quantities of water; and
Local Resilience Forums stood up to enable quick and effective development of support if required.

Alongside these steps, the Water Minister Emma Hardy has instructed the Environment Agency to prioritise protecting public water supplies in areas affected by severe drought, where there is an unavoidable trade-off between environmental rules and water supplies. This means allowing water companies to keep more water in depleted reservoirs. Read the severe drought announcement

Wimbleball Reservoir 14 Oct 2026

Map showing the areas in Severe Drought - 15 October 2026