Latest news with #JessNeumann
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
How one water company has gone 30 years without a hosepipe ban
England is battling exceptionally dry weather. It has been the country's driest start to a year since 1976, with drought declared in the East and West Midlands this week, joining swathes of northern England also in drought status. It comes after rainfall in June was 20% less than the long-term average. It was also the hottest June on record, with two heatwaves over the month driving unusually high demand for water. All this has resulted in a number of water companies imposing hosepipe bans. Southern Water is the latest, saying restrictions on hosepipes for activities such as watering gardens, filling paddling pools and washing cars will come in for households in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight from Monday, following similar restrictions from Yorkshire Water, South East Water and Thames Water. But there is no sign of a ban - yet - from Severn Trent, the water company which serves 4.6 million households across the Midlands, as well as Bristol, north and mid-Wales and the outskirts of Sheffield. In fact, it has a 30-year record of not imposing hosepipe bans, and this week said it was doing everything in its power to not break that. Here, Yahoo News UK asks: how? How has Severn Trent kept its 30-year record? When approached by Yahoo News UK, Severn Trent said it has avoided a hosepipe ban for 30 years "because we know just how important it is for our customers". But Dr Jess Neumann, associate professor of hydrology at the University of Reading, said a big factor is the company's sourcing "resilience". "It has the advantage of sourcing water from multiple different places: upland and lowland rivers, ground water and reservoirs. "So it probably has a bit more resilience in terms of being able to source from other places, whereas companies like Yorkshire Water are heavily reliant on reservoirs, and if it doesn't rain it doesn't have the water because it doesn't have ground water supplies." However, Severn Trent did point to what it is doing to prevent future hosepipe bans, including fixing 60,000 leaks across its network last year, saving 87 million litres of water a day, and investing £400m in new pipes. Dr Neumann said of this: "That's what we want water companies to be doing... if they are going to throw money at investment and fixing leaks, I am all for it. "However, it doesn't take away from the fact the Midlands is in drought. It feels like it is riding out the uncertainty and hoping it's going to be wet before having to implement any restrictions." The company said this week "we can't escape how hot and dry it is and how little rainfall we've had this year". Are hosepipe bans effective? Yes, Dr Neumann said, because they can reduce consumption by between 2% and 7% daily, depending on the level of public compliance. She added: "The good thing about the bans is they also make people more mindful of the water they are using. It has a dual purpose: not just stopping people using hosepipes, but also bringing water conservation onto their daily agenda. So they might think about taking a shorter shower, or investing in a water butt for when it does rain." Will there be more hosepipe bans? Dr Neumann said they will continue because of climate change, but water companies can mitigate shortages with investment. "If water companies sort out technological investment and fix things like leaks - which cause a 20% loss a day - they can claw back a lot of their water resources and we might not need so many hosepipe bans. "But we are certainly going to continue to see heatwaves, droughts and extreme and chaotic weather. In the short to medium term, we can expect to see more hosepipe bans if we continue to see summers like this." Read more Can you water the garden during a hosepipe ban? (Yahoo News UK) Up to five more regions could face drought this year, Environment Agency says (PA Media) Watch: Southern Water becomes latest company to bring in hosepipe ban amid dry weather Click below to see the latest South West headlines
The Guardian
12-07-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
England's reservoirs at lowest level for a decade as experts call for hosepipe bans
England's reservoirs are at their lowest levels for a decade, new data reveals, as experts urge water companies to immediately put hosepipe bans in place. In June, reservoirs across the country were 76% full, which is below their level in the severe drought year of 2022 when they were at 77% capacity at this time in the summer. Levels continue to drop dramatically as the hot weather has caused an increased demand for water and there has been very little rain to refill reservoirs. Experts have warned water companies to implement hosepipe bans across the country. Dr Jess Neumann, an associate professor in hydrology at the University of Reading, said: 'Following an unseasonably dry spring reservoir levels across parts of the country are falling to critically low levels. 'Water companies need to be proactive. Hosepipe bans can save 3%-7% of daily water use as long as the public are onboard with the need to conserve water. Hosepipe bans have the additional advantage of increasing awareness of water scarcity and stress amongst communities, further encouraging mindful water use.' Dr Jonathan Paul, from the department of Earth sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London, added: 'Reservoir levels are directly linked to rainfall, so local restrictions on water use (like hosepipe bans) might be necessary to stabilise them.' Yorkshire Water this week introduced hosepipe restrictions after the region recorded its driest spring in 132 years. South East Water on Friday also announced a hosepipe ban for more than one million people in Kent and Sussex. Water bosses have been reluctant to implement hosepipe bans because it affects customer satisfaction ratings, sources at the government's national drought group have told the Guardian. These ratings, collected by the regulator, contribute to a water company's performance report. Sources at the drought group, which convenes regularly to discuss the response to droughts, said the companies were waiting 'until the very last moment' to put bans in place. Rivers are at low levels already, and further abstraction could risk environmental damage. Environment Agency officials have been advising the environment secretary, Steve Reed, on whether water company drought plans are sufficient. They said water companies should follow their drought plans and hosepipe bans should be in place prior to any permits for extra river abstraction, and in place long enough to have the opportunity to have a measurable impact on reducing customer demand. In some areas of the country where no hosepipe bans are in place, farmers have been severely restricted from irrigating their land. The National Farmers' Union president, Tom Bradshaw, has said this was 'risking food production', particularly in East Anglia where many farms are based. The county had exceptionally low rainfall this spring, the third lowest on record since 1871, with reservoir and groundwater levels dropping. There is no hosepipe ban in place for residents, yet farmers have been struggling to water their crops. Bradshaw told the Guardian: 'Abstraction bans have already been implemented in Norfolk with no prior engagement or warning. It seems ridiculous when there is no official drought or hosepipe ban.' Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion The regions at most risk of running out of water at the moment are those which rely largely on reservoirs rather than groundwater. The wet autumn and winter of 2024-25 allowed the country's aquifers – the water below ground – to recharge, so parts of the south-east, where the soil is chalk and the aquifers recharge more rapidly, are in a better position than those in the Midlands and north. However, more dry weather could cause aquifer levels to begin to dwindle as well, and groundwater levels are already below normal across much of the country. The most recent outlook from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology says: 'The outlook for July indicates that groundwater levels are likely to remain normal to below normal across most areas, with notably or exceptionally low levels expected to persist in some areas.' Neumann added: 'Pressures on water supply are not limited to UK regions principally reliant on reservoirs, but are also impacting areas where supply is fed from groundwater sources such as the central and south east. This is concerning as groundwater stores are not as quickly replenished [as rivers and reservoirs] when the rains do eventually come.' The prolonged dry spring and summer coupled with hot weather, which increases consumer water use, has caused reservoir levels in midland and northern areas of the country to drop dramatically. Severn Trent's reservoir levels have dropped from 83.5% on 23 May to 71.1% on 30 June, while United Utilities reservoir levels are currently at 65% when last year at this time they were at 84.5%. Yorkshire's reservoirs are at 55.8%, down more than a quarter on what they would normally be at this time of year. Last year the government and water companies announced proposals to build nine new reservoirs by 2050. No major reservoirs have been completed in England since 1992, shortly after the water sector was privatised. A Water UK spokesperson said: 'Water companies do everything possible to avoid restrictions on customers, including by moving water around their region and surging activity on leakage. However, when government-mandated trigger levels are reached then unfortunately a temporary use ban needs to be imposed.' A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesperson said: 'Rapid population growth, crumbling infrastructure and a warming climate mean without urgent action, Britain could run out of drinking water. We have taken swift and decisive action to secure £104bn of private sector investment to build nine reservoirs and new pipes to cut leaks.'
Business Times
08-07-2025
- Climate
- Business Times
Londoners could face water limits due to dry weather
[LONDON] Hot, dry weather in London and surrounding areas means water usage might have to be restricted for Thames Water's 16 million customers, according to the supplier. The UK has already had an unusually warm start to the summer with temperatures set to climb again in the coming days. Met Office forecasts see London reaching 32 degrees Centigrade by Friday. 'Unless the situation changes significantly, we will need to put usage restrictions, including a hosepipe ban, in place to ensure taps keep running for customers' essential use,' a spokesperson for Thames Water said. The UK is experiencing drier and hotter periods with hosepipe bans becoming more common, as global warming drives up temperatures and impacts rainfall patterns across the country. Companies are investing in more reservoirs as well as fixing leaks in their network where significant amounts of water is lost. Water usage has spiked for some of Thames Water's customers with demand in Swindon and Oxfordshire surpassing levels seen during the 2022 drought at the end of June this year. This comes as the first hosepipe ban this year was announced on Tuesday (Jul 8) by Yorskhire Water, which operates in the northeast of the UK, telling customers that watering gardens, cleaning cars and filling up pools will be forbidden. The company says reservoir levels have not increased since January following the driest spring on record. Last month the Environment Agency declared a drought in the area after it received no rain for 22 days in May. That left Yorkshire's reservoirs at 63 per cent at the end of May compared with 94 per cent in 2024. 'Despite some heavy downpours, there has not been enough rain to compensate for the dry weather over the longer term,' said Jess Neumann, associate professor of hydrology, University of Reading. In May, UK environment authorities urged water companies to take more steps to shore up supplies amid England's driest spring since 1893. BLOOMBERG
Metro
08-07-2025
- Climate
- Metro
Experts warn London at risk of flash flooding: 'It doesn't bear thinking about'
London is at risk of a disastrous flood, and we may not respond to the danger until it's too late, water experts warned. Last week, floods in Texas claimed the lives of dozens, including young girls staying at a summer camp along the banks of the Guadeloupe River. Before this, flash flooding devastated the Spanish city of Valencia last October, leaving cars piled up in the streets, supermarkets underwater, and roads filled with mud and debris, killing over 200 people. Hydrologists, who study water systems including flood risk, told Metro that essentially, it's possible. If there was a huge amount of rainfall in one day, the capital – like most cities – would not be able to cope with the deluge, and there could be deaths from people flooded as they slept, or while trying to escape in their cars. Dr Jess Neumann, associate professor of hydrology at the University of Reading, said: 'Just because we haven't seen catastrophic floods in London yet doesn't mean that it's not going to happen, or that it couldn't happen. 'We have a lot of impermeable surfaces and the area is prone to convective thunderstorms.' While there are features that made the flooded regions of Texas and Valencia more vulnerable (steep hills to channel water, and a warm ocean nearby leading to more water in the atmosphere), London has vulnerabilities of its own, like a creaking Victorian sewer system, and huge areas concreted over, where water cannot be absorbed by the ground. The Thames Barrier would do nothing to help if there was a huge dump of rainfall from a thunderstorm upstream. Professor Jacob Tompkins OBE, a civil engineer and hydrologist, told Metro that while the barrier protects the capital from deadly storm surges, such as the one which killed hundreds of people on the east coast in 1953, it could even worsen flooding upstream. 'If you close the Thames Barrier because of a sea surge, and at the same time you've got heavy rainfall, there's nowhere for the rainfall to go,' he said. 'The river can't flow out. So it stops the storm surge, but it could also flood London.' In his view, while there are a lot of people thinking about the issue and trying to manage it, there is still a lack of urgency and joined-up thinking. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 'Valencia had a full plan to prevent large catastrophic flooding, but it wasn't implemented yet,' he said. 'It was on the backburner. 'And you see these plans in cities all around the world: 'We have a plan that will be implemented by 2050, or 2070'. 'But it's happening now. We cannot delay these plans – people are going to die.' In July 2021, London was hit by flash flooding which affected more 2,000 properties, including underground stations, hospitals, and the shop of a dressmaker beloved by Princess Diana, at a cost of some £281 million in insurance claims. Thames Water said they had 'learned lessons' from the incident, and London Mayor Sadiq Khan commissioned the city's first ever Surface Water Strategy, which was published in May. It warns that there are almost 320,000 properties at high risk of flooding in London, including 'at least 56,000 basements, many of which are inhabited'. This leads us to another of London's risk factors for flooding. It may not be as obvious as paved over front gardens, but think about all the construction work going on behind hoardings on terraced streets. With no room to extend to the side, thousands of homeowners have resorted to digging out basements for extra space for their home gym, bedroom, or even an entire new flat. The waterproofed underground floors displace groundwater, and reduce the natural capacity to absorb and store water during a flood – but that's not their only problem. Dr Neumann said: 'Basements are a huge risk if there's flash flooding. They are usually downstairs, and so are the first place where water is going to enter. 'The Texas floods struck around 4am. I hate to think what the potential could be for flash flooding in London at 3am if people were asleep in basement rooms – it doesn't bear thinking about.' Meterologists have long warned that extreme weather is becoming more likely, with one key reason being that warmer air holds more moisture, meaning the potential for more rain to fall. According to the Met Office, the UK has already become wetter over the last few decades, with last year seeing the eighth wettest winter and sixth wettest spring on record. Storm Henk and Storm Bert brought widespread flooding, and in September, Oxford saw its rainiest calendar month for 250 years. Pluvial (heavy rain causing both surface water flooding, and swelling rivers) Fluvial (rivers and streams bursting their banks) Sea surges from high tides, which the Thames Barrier was designed to prevent Rising groundwater, which overflows drains and sewers, and causes surface water Civil engineers use the concept of stationarity, which assumes that historical trends of the past will be reflected in the future, including frequency of extreme rainfall. But 'there's no such thing as a 100-year flood anymore,' Prof Tompkins said, adding it's not only London at risk from extreme flooding, but 'every city in the UK'. The Thames Barrier opened in 1984, and its series of massive steel gates block the ocean from washing out the Houses of Parliament and Borough Market. But it is now over forty years old, and reaching the end of its lifetime as originally conceived. Dr Neumann said: 'With rising sea levels and more extreme weather events, we have to question how long the Thames Barrier is going to be able to keep London safe.' The barrier has had to be raised more and more in recent years, but it is the risk from rainfall which really keeps hydrologists awake: in the July 2021 floods, a month's worth of rain fell in just two hours. Dr Neumann said the sewerage system 'was not designed to deal with huge amounts of rainfall, so we quite often see drains just bubbling up', even without such extreme levels. The Surface Water Strategy recommends improving defences including small scale interventions like roof gardens, water butts, and more places where water can pool, which take the peak off the flood, and prevent disaster. It also sets out plans to improve the sewerage system and create 'catchments', where authorities will work together better to tackle flooding, which does not respect local authority boundaries. Dr Neumann said it is difficult to give early warning in flash floods driven by rainfall, because they can 'happen in a matter of minutes', and even when forecasters can tell that a thunderstorm will bring heavy rain, it's hard to predict exactly where that will be. Households at risk can invest in property defences beforehand, such as valves in toilets to stop waste water flowing back inside, and self-sealing air bricks. Dr Neumann said: 'For people who are at risk, I would also recommend investing in property flood barriers/defences across doors and windows, raising electrical sockets and considering use of materials that are more flood resilient in low-lying areas e.g. tiles in basements. This can make the clean-up operations easier. 'Being prepared in the long term makes the difference in the event of a flood. People should check their long-term flood risk on the Government website and sign up to the Environment Agency free flood alerts and warnings if they are in an at risk area. 'Having a flood kit prepared (with torches, bottled water, battery pack and phone charger, blankets etc), knowing how to turn off your gas and electricity and identifying a safe place to evacuate can be critical. 'Hopefully we would never need to use these steps, but if we did, knowing what to do helps us be proactive in managing our risk and safety.' Adding a water butt and rain garden, as well as 'depaving' by removing concrete and asphalt, can also help reduce the general flood risk. Prof Tompkins said that flooding isn't top of the priority list because it feels distant to many people: 'We haven't had the massive flood or the huge drought in living memory yet. More Trending 'We're very close all of the time, but no one realises,' he said. 'Rivers flood, that's what they do and we haven't given them the space to do that. 'The water crisis is here but it's just slow moving, and people don't notice it until it puts its head above the parapet.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Yorkshire Water to introduce hosepipe ban from Friday MORE: Twin sisters, 8, killed in Texas flash floods 'brought so much joy' to grieving family MORE: Tributes to 'brave' Camp Mystic counselor, 18, who died saving children in Texas flood
Telegraph
30-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Thames Water tells customers to ‘fix leaky loos' amid hosepipe ban fears
Thames Water has told customers to 'fix leaky loos' amid fears of a hosepipe ban caused by the unusually dry spring weather. The water company has written to households urging them to 'be mindful' about water usage, but stopped short of implementing a hosepipe ban despite Britain facing its driest spring in 69 years. Thames Water, which provides water to 16 million people across London and the south of England, told customers to 'avoid wasting water and fix leaky loos and dripping taps as soon as you can'. It said doing so would allow the company to keep reservoirs full and make sure there would be enough water to withstand dry periods. It comes as five regions across the north of England were moved to drought status by the Environment Agency (EA) because reservoirs and rivers are at such low levels. On Thursday, the EA moved Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire, Cumbria, and Lancashire from 'prolonged dry weather' to drought status, with reservoirs and rivers at low levels. 'A hosepipe ban is certainly possible' The decision indicated a looming hosepipe ban, according to Dr Jess Neumann, associate professor of hydrology at the University of Reading, who said: 'Putting the North West into a drought status tells the water company they need to start putting into place their drought action plan. 'That will include telling people to use their water in a more conservative way, to be mindful. A hosepipe ban is certainly possible, that is the way it is looking.' She added that without 'steady, constant rainfall for a good couple of months', a hosepipe ban was 'on the horizon'. Thames Water has no plans for a hosepipe ban at this stage, The Telegraph understands. A spokesman for the firm said: 'April 2025 saw significantly less rain than the year before, and we do encourage customers to use water wisely through the spring and summer months. 'Our water resources are in a healthy place ahead of this summer, as rainfall was above average through the winter months. Of note, our reservoir levels are at 95 per cent. Groundwater levels also remain above average for this time of year for most of the areas in which we operate. 'We all have a role to play when it comes to saving water. It is a precious resource, and we need to value it, which is why we are asking everyone to play their part in reducing use.' The last hosepipe ban was introduced by South East Water in June 2023 and affected people in Kent and Sussex. In 2022, a drought and a series of record heatwaves led five water companies to impose a ban on a total of 19 million customers to ensure drinking and wastewater services were prioritised. Chris Weston, Thames Water's chief executive, said the company had learnt the lessons from that summer, when it was reported that it came 'dangerously close' to running out of water.
