The East of England is experiencing a period of prolonged and intense dryness. While hosepipe bans have been introduced in other parts of England, Anglian Water does not expect to bring in similar measures in our region.

This is what I told the EDP:

“When it gets to this, no one can magic up extra water from somewhere, and we really need to ask how we ended up here.

Some of it is the fault of the monopoly privatised water companies. They’ve gouged enormous profits as millions of gallons of water have gushed out from leaking pipes at the same time as flooding their shareholders bank accounts with huge returns.

But most of it is increasingly due to the accelerating impacts of climate breakdown. UEA experts say the East of England is the U.K. region most at risk from what’s becoming a new and volatile normality of heatwaves and drought. We’re proud of our agricultural heritage here in the East. But we’ve got farmers selling off livestock because there’s not enough water to grow animal feed and on 24/7 guard against fire decimating their crops.

Right now, the government needs to implement a national plan to respond to what is now a country-wide drought. They need to directly take back control of water, so it’s clear with whom the buck stops for failure to provide what is an essential of life reliably. After that, water needs to become a democratically owned and controlled, not-for-profit public service.”

Read the article here

Why is Norfolk not introducing a hosepipe ban? (8th August 2022)

UEA: Why we could be heading for a drought and what we can do about it (3rd August 2022)