Water scarcity in the South East: why it matters and what can be done
Find out about water scarcity, what we're doing to tackle this challenge across the South East and how we can all help by using water more wisely.
The South East is running out of water
What is water scarcity?
In simple terms, water scarcity means that the demand for water is more than the amount the environment can provide. In the South East, this has happened because of:
- a reduction in the amount water we can take from the environment
- an increase in demand due to a growing population
- climate change putting additional pressure on water sources like rivers, lakes, and underground reserves.
New limits to reduce the amount of water we can take from rivers and underground reserves have been introduced to protect the rare and sensitive ecosystems they support. This is the right thing to do, but in order to take less from the environment, we need to develop new sources of water to make up the shortfall.
From the moment it comes out of your taps or falls as rain, water follows a natural cycle. It’s a precious, finite resource and we can’t make more of it. However, we can all use water more wisely.
The challenge we face
We currently supply around 565 million litres of water to customers across Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight under normal weather conditions, enough to fill 226 Olympic swimming pools. The population in our area is expected to increase by between 7% and 34% by 2075. Meanwhile, we expect further reductions in the amount of water we can take from the environment, especially as climate change is also predicted to reduce the availability of water.
The result of this increase in demand and reduction in availability is that we need to find up to 587 million litres of additional water a day by 2075 during dry conditions.
But it rains so much!
Even though it seems like it’s always raining, the South East of England can still be water stressed because the demand for water is higher than the amount that’s available to take from the environment.
Our region has a large population, increasing urbanisation and increasingly common extreme weather events where rain falls in heavier downpours.
Heavier downpours mean that more of the rain falling on our region runs off into rivers or out to sea, instead of soaking into the ground to refill water supplies. In our region, 70% of the water we supply comes from these underground sources.
