‘The Environment Agency (EA) is holding a consultation for the revised Water Company Drought Plan Guideline (see consultation site).  The water company drought plan guideline (WC DPG) sets out what water companies must and should include in their statutory drought management plans. These plans focus on the things that companies plan to do to maintain water supply and protect the environment from their operations during a drought.

The EA has updated the WC DPG to ensure that all technical information is up to date and that lessons learnt from recent research and experience of drought has been incorporated. The updated draft has been reviewed internally within the EA but they feel it is important to consult with the organisations and individuals affected by the guideline. These could be water companies who use the guideline to produce their plans, other regulators and NGOs (e.g. Ofwat, Natural England, English Heritage, World Wildlife Fund – UK), other water users (e.g. Canal and Rivers Trust, Energy UK), water resource research and consultancy community (e.g. CIWEM, Water UK, UKWIR, HR Wallingford, Royal Town Planning Institute) and the general public or those representing them (e.g. Consumer Council for Water, Waterwise, Department for Communities and Local Government)

The EA is focussing only on the WC DPG for this consultation and as a result responses should be based around whether the edited text highlighted in the draft guideline is suitable or in answer to the consultation questions provided. Download the draft document here