Water utilities were close to breaking the terms of their licences to keep supplies flowing during last year’s drought, according to a new report from Greenpeace.
In a document by its Unearthed arm and sourced from internal briefings at the Environment Agency, Greenpeace said that reserves in some major reservoirs were at record lows and approached a state of “dead storage” in some cases with the water no longer treatable.
Nearly half of all English reservoirs were classed as “exceptionally low” for the time of year.
The Environment Agency warned that Yorkshire Water and Southern Water might take action in breach of their abstraction licences, posing risks to protected areas, rare habitats and wildlife.
Unearthed said it has no evidence that either company did break the law.
Southern Water came close to abstraction levels from the Tess and Itchen rivers in Hampshire because its allowance was tightened in 2019, meaning it had to apply for a drought permit late last summer, it said.
South West Water, owned by Pennon, was also warned it might need to provide bottled water and tanker trucks if the dry weather continued, the documents show.
Charles Watson, chair of water pollution charity River Action, said the documents were “extraordinary”.
Last year was the UK’s hottest year on record with rainfall the lowest in more than 130 years.
Professor Hannah Cloke, a hydrologist at the University of Reading, told Unearthed: “We had very low stocks of water by the end of last summer.
“Water companies don’t have the infrastructure in place to provide an adequate water supply during extended drought periods, and they are very slow to repair leaks.”