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Why are we in drought?

Watch our short video which explains why we are in drought and what you can do to help.

About the drought

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Put simply - it's not rained enough.

The last 18 months have been the driest in 100 years, some parts of the Anglian Water region have officially been in a state of drought since July 2011.  

It’s a big challenge, because the aquifers (from which we source our groundwater) and rivers (which feed into our surface water reservoirs), need rain to replenish them.

We are taking a number of steps to protect our supplies but we all need to do our bit to save water, which is why we've lauched a campaign encouraging everyone to Drop 20 litres of water a day.

Even in a good year the East of England is the driest part of the UK. The fact we did not need a hosepipe ban last summer was down to continuous investment in our network and to the fact our customers understood the importance of saving water.

Find out more about what we're doing to help.

One wet weekend won't make a difference

It's going to take a lot more than a few wet days to get us back to our target position for this time of year. We're dealing with the impact of two consecutive dry winters, with the months in between also suffering from below average rainfall. To recover from a situation like this will take months of persistant rain.

 

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