Our Drought Plan

Our Drought Plan sets out how we would deal with a drought in Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

It outlines the steps we would take to ensure we can maintain supplies of drinking water to our customers while minimising the impact on our rivers and the environment during drought events.

In the South East, water resources are under pressure and the region is classed as an 'area of serious water stress' by the government.

These resources have and will continue to come under further pressure due to new laws which restrict the amount of water we can abstract. In the future a growing number of houses in the region and the effects of climate change on our weather patterns will also affect the resources available to us.

We regularly update our Drought Plans and in 2018 we published an updated Draft Drought Plan for public consultation.

After the consultation ended we published a Statement of Response and updated the draft plan to reflect the responses we received during the consultation.

Following this, we were given the go-ahead by Defra to publish our final Drought Plan on 1 July 2019.

The 2019 Drought Plan replaces our previous plan, which was published in 2013.

The 2019 Drought Plan is guided by legislation which allows water companies to introduce a wider range of temporary restrictions when resources are under pressure.

Temporary Bans can include restrictions on using hosepipes and sprinklers to wash cars, water gardens and allotments, fill swimming pools and wash patios.

In severe droughts, we can also apply for Drought Permits and Orders to take more water from rivers and underground aquifers and further limit what we use water for.

Download our 2019 Drought Plan and supporting documents below: