06 Nov 2024

New York’s mayor urged residents to take shorter showers, fix dripping faucets and otherwise conserve water, issuing a drought watch after a parched October in the city and in much of the United States. A drought watch is the first of three potential levels of water-saving directives, and Eric Adams pitched it in a social media video as a […]

23 Oct 2024

The changing climate means we will see more extreme weather in the coming years, the National Drought Group heard at its latest meeting (16 October 2024), which was attended by Water Minister Emma Hardy. The Environment Agency chaired a routine meeting of the expert group in which it was confirmed that water resources are currently […]

12 Sep 2024

The government says that predicting where future flooding and droughts will strike next in the UK will be made easier under a new project for scientists using the latest tech and real-time data. It will help key bodies, like local authorities and the Environment Agency, to stem the worst of extreme weather’s impact on communities, […]

21 Aug 2024

A new report, Embracing Nature, published by The Wildlife Trusts, identifies drought as the current leading threat to their nature reserves for the first time. The Wildlife Trusts, who are among the UK’s largest landowners with 2,600 nature reserves covering nearly 100,000 hectares (ha), also point to pollution, invasive species and habitat fragmentation as high […]

22 May 2024

Climate change is worsening floods, droughts and is reducing water quality, posing an increasing threat to our health, according to a new European Environment Agency (EEA) report. Fast-tracking implementation and better coordination of efforts by governments, water authorities and healthcare providers are urgently needed to prevent and reduce health impacts. The EEA report ‘Responding to […]

24 Apr 2024

Groups of farmers will be offered support to work together to store water and protect against the impact of drought through a new fund launched by the government today (Monday 22 April). The £1.6 million fund will be used by farmers to investigate different methods to manage water in their area. Projects could include multi-farm […]

24 Apr 2024

There’s a new gold rush in the American west. But this time, the prospectors are private firms, and they’re scouring the region for a different precious resource: water. For the past several months, the Guardian has been investigating an unprecedented deal in which a corporation, backed by global investors, sold rights to the Colorado River’s […]

17 Apr 2024

South West Water is confident there will be no need for hosepipe bans in either Devon or Cornwall this year, even if we see prolonged periods of hot and dry weather. In 2022, a hosepipe ban was put in place in Cornwall and parts of North Devon after the biggest drought in the region for […]