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Where are the water company emergency drought plans?
The Guardian reports that the UK government is being accused of acting irresponsibly by refusing to publish water companies’ emergency drought plans.
Water firms are required to publish statutory drought plans every five years to set out how they will maintain the public water supply and protect the environment in the case of drought, with the 2027-32 drought plans currently under consultation. Alongside these publicly available plans, water companies are required to produce separate emergency drought plans. Activists are now raising concerns that these emergency plans remain obscured from the public, at a time when three-quarters of England and the whole of Wales are in drought and five key reservoirs now have “exceptionally low” water levels.
Government says plans are not published for security reasons
A water industry source told the Guardian these plans were not published to avoid alarming the public. Yet the government has said they are not publishing the separate emergency drought plans water companies are required to produce for security reasons. According to an anonymous water industry source reported by the media outlet, these plans were not published to avoid alarming the public.
Professor Liz Bentley, the chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, told the Guardian they agreed with the government “these are the kind of things you want to keep confidential because that could have widespread effects on the security of the country”. Drought could lead to widespread impacts on certain critical industries, as recently observed with nuclear power plant shut downs in Europe.
Should the public be informed?
However, critics of the governments stance to keep the emergency drought plans from the public is irresponsible. Some have voiced increasing concerns that the “lack of a holistic plan” and “secrecy” could suggest controversial decisions have already been made, such as prioritising water-hungry data centres over other sectors for water. Water UK recently told the Guardian it had asked the government to publish a drought hierarchy to set out which sectors would be prioritised in times of water shortages, but that ministers had yet to do so. “Without this there will be a trade-off across society,” said Jon Chappell, Water UK’s deputy director.
Government maintains their priority is holding water companies to account
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) told the Guardian emergency drought plans were in addition to publicly available statutory drought plans and would not be published for security reasons.
The government spokesperson said: “Water companies are already made to publish statutory drought plans, which the public have a say in and which set out exactly what actions companies will take at each stage of a drought.
“We are not in an emergency with drought and our priority is holding water companies to account for managing water resources in the best interests of the public.”
A Water UK spokesperson said: “Each water company publishes a drought plan, which is consulted on publicly and sets out the actions the company will take at each stage of a drought. Planning for a severe drought sits under a separate framework, and publication is a matter for government. We support calls from the House of Lords environment and climate change committee for the government to decide how water should be prioritised in a severe drought.”