·       Anglian Water’s investment in resilient infrastructure has helped reservoirs recover from warmest year on record across the UK

·       Some groundwater sources in the East have only seen ~80% of average rainfall over the last 12 months with more still needed to recharge underground aquifers.

The region’s reservoirs may look full now after months of healthy rainfall, careful management and efforts from customers to save water, but Anglian Water experts are warning we’re not out of the woods just yet as it’s what’s going on below ground that counts as we head into Spring.

East Anglia remains in ‘drought status’ despite the last three months seeing around average rainfall across most of the East of England.  While this has helped reservoirs recover to the levels expected for this time of year, the region’s groundwater sources in the East remain well below normal levels, with a deficit of around 1.5 months’ worth of rainfall.

Head of Water Resources and Drought for Anglian Water, Sarah Underhill said:

“Water is one of our most precious resources: it’s why we manage it with such care and plan ahead for the future to ensure there’s enough to go round our rapidly growing customer base, whilst leaving plenty in the environment for nature to thrive.”

“As the country’s driest region, and the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, we invest tens of millions every year to build our region’s resilience against the challenges we face. This resilience, combined with the best leakage record in the industry and around 90% of our customers having meters means we’re able to manage drawn out periods of unusually dry weather. But what we can’t do, is ‘make more water’.”

Last year, the lack of rain saw the Anglian region given drought status by the Environment Agency in August, but Anglian Water was one of just a handful of water companies to not need to impose a hosepipe ban, thanks to years of investment to protect the region’s public water supplies. But even with this resilience in place, measures to help reduce demand for this summer are not off the table just yet.

Across the Anglian region, half of customers’ water supply comes from surface water (rivers and reservoirs) and the other half from groundwater sources (underground aquifers).

The period between November and the end of March is typically referred to as the refill period across the water industry. It is the time when river flows recover, meaning more water can be abstracted and stored in reservoirs and groundwater levels are topped up thanks to the winter rainfall. 

Sarah continues: “This winter, rivers and groundwater stores across the east of our region, in particular, have not recovered as quickly from the dry summer simply because some areas have only seen around 80% of the long term rainfall over the last 12 months.  We’re continuing to monitor the situation closely but if we don’t get the predicted rainfall over the next couple of months before Spring, we may still need to consider temporary restrictions this summer in certain areas.

Anglian Water continues to plough more resources into finding and fixing leaks in its vast network that could stretch to Sydney and back if put end to end, using innovative techniques and a bigger team than ever before, driving down leakage rates to record low levels. As well, the water company are on track to install over 1 million smart meters in customer homes by 2025 to help customers manage their water use and identify customer side leakage on pipes in homes.

The water company is also planning well into the future to ensure supplies are there for generations to come whilst protecting the environment. Boots are already on the ground installing hundreds of kilometres of new strategic pipeline to bring surplus water from the ‘wetter’ north of the region down to the dry south and east, as part of a project costing over half a billion pounds. Proposals are also underway for two new reservoirs, the size of existing Grafham Water, in Lincolnshire and The Fens. Sarah adds: “We live in the driest part of the country and we know this year is going to be tough for our customers, as the cost-of-living increases for us all. It makes sense to use water as sustainably as possibly; it not only helps customers to save money on their water and energy bills but also hugely benefits our environment and means we are prolonging these supplies for as long as possible.

Some water (and money) saving tips during winter are:  

- Now is the perfect time to fill up those water butts 
- Fix dripping taps and leaking loos
- Lag pipes to prevent them bursting during cold snaps
- Take part in our shorter shower challenge