05 Aug 2026

Photo credit: Scott Graham   Ofwat has opened a consultation on how the charges paid by new water suppliers to established companies are set out, part of an effort to make the figures clearer and more consistent. The proposals would add a formal annex to Ofwat’s bulk charging rules, setting standard ways for incumbent companies […]

05 Aug 2026

Photo credit: Yihong Chen   The US government has stepped in to break a long stalemate over the drought-stricken Colorado River, proposing cuts of up to 3 million acre-feet a year for the three lower basin states. The Interior Department’s preferred management framework, published on 31 July, would reduce the allocation of Arizona, California and […]

05 Aug 2026

Photo credit: Chris Gallagher   The Scottish government has launched a £15 million fund to strengthen flood resilience in the communities most at risk. The money, announced on 2 August, will go to local groups, communities and councils to improve their preparedness, and is intended to complement Scotland’s wider Flood Resilience Strategy. Where the money […]

05 Aug 2026

Photo credit: Sharon Waldron   The Drinking Water Inspectorate has issued Thames Water a warning letter after finding “multiple and significant failures” in works that left a customer’s water supply mistakenly connected to a sewer in Kidlington, Oxfordshire. The letter, dated 23 July, follows the Inspectorate’s investigation into an incident that occurred on 4 March […]

05 Aug 2026

Photo credit: M. Shahri   Hungary’s only nuclear plant came within millimetres of a complete shutdown this week as the drought draining central Europe’s rivers left the Danube too low to cool its reactors. A slight overnight rise in the river bought the Paks plant a reprieve, while downstream in Romania the military has detonated […]

05 Aug 2026

Photo credit: Gio L   A group of Labour MPs and regional mayors has urged the prime minister to turn failing water companies into not-for-profit cooperatives, presenting the idea as a middle path between full nationalisation and the status quo. The proposal, set out in a report from the Good Growth Foundation, a think tank […]

05 Aug 2026

Photo credit: Darla Hueske   Britain could face food shortages if the drought continues, farming leaders have warned, after the Met Office confirmed the driest July on record and the earliest harvest since data began. England saw just 6.5mm of rain last month, 10 per cent of the long-term average and less than half the […]

04 Aug 2026

Photo by NOAA   A major new scientific review has found that climate change is already driving large-scale shifts in the plankton communities that underpin UK marine food webs, with knock-on risks for fisheries, seabirds and the ocean’s ability to store carbon. A landmark rolling review The study, from the UK’s Marine Climate Change Impacts […]