The Environment Agency is seeking views on updates to the guideline that water companies in England must follow when they prepare and publish their drought plans by 2027.
The Agency has updated the guideline to ensure that all technical information is up to date and lessons learnt from recent research and experience of drought has been incorporated. The EA is now seeking views on the clarity of the changes made to the guideline and whether anything is missing or needs improving.
Photo credit: Francesco Ungaro
The main changes to the water company drought plan guideline are:
- improved presentation and clarify of information included to answer queries raised by water companies and others
- demand – new section on further actions companies to significantly reduce residential customer demand
- extreme drought management actions – new information on priorities and checking viability and implementability of extreme actions companies include in their plans along with a new section on ‘alternative pathways’
- recovery from drought – new section added
- new text on water retailers included in the introduction and where relevant throughout guideline
- new text on emergency plans and how they relate to drought plans
- annual drought plan health check – information added covering this new requirement
The Agency has included some further information on the use of environmental triggers for environmentally sensitive sites and provided the examples of chalk and greensand rivers.
The deadline to submit responses to the consultation is Sunday 26 January 2025.