{"id":109369,"date":"2026-08-23T17:35:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T17:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/109369\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T17:35:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T17:35:14","slug":"britains-drought-we-dont-even-have-drinking-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/109369\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain’s drought\u2014\u2018We don’t even have drinking water’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tEnvironment<\/a><\/p>\n

After one of the driest summers on record, thousands of people in Britain have been left without water. Camilla Royle spoke to residents in east London about living with water shortages. Photos by Dave Gilchrist<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDownloading PDF. Please wait…<\/p>\n

Sunday 23 August 2026<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tIssue <\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\"Housing\"Housing<\/p>\n

Housing association workers deliver water for tenants in the buildings (Photo: Dave Gilchrist)<\/p>\n

Hundreds of residents at nine blocks of flats in the Devons Road estate in east London have been left without regular \u00adrunning water since late last year.<\/p>\n

In one of the blocks, Shillingford House, Rahana told Socialist Worker that it has gone on so long that it has \u201cbecome normal\u201d. \u201cWe have just had to start living with it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome days it\u2019s okay for a couple of days,\u201d she explained. \u201cAnd then suddenly, out of the blue, the water has gone. You can be in the shower and \u00adsuddenly it disappears.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to fill buckets. We have to use the washing machine before 7am. You are just trying to catch the water before it all goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rahana says that with an elderly mother-in-law in the house as well as young children, the \u201cmain issue is the toilet.\u201d The household can sometimes go for hours without water to flush it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have kids going to school. They can be running late and there is no water to wash their face,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Not having a reliable water supply puts people\u2019s lives on hold. Rahana said she had tried to invite guests to visit her home but she had to explain to them that there was no running water.<\/p>\n

Her neighbour, Kowsar, also spoke about the uncertainty of not knowing whether water will flow the next time he turns on the tap.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes we don\u2019t have drinking water at all,\u201d he told Socialist Worker. \u201cYou wake up and you want to drink some water, and there is none. It\u2019s just sudden.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt affects so much. The washing machine does not have enough water coming so clothes don\u2019t wash properly. It\u2019s very difficult to wash dishes. It\u2019s very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that sometimes there is no cold water, so the family uses hot water, but that drives up the gas bill. And he has been offered no compensation\u2014not \u201ca single penny\u201d off the water bill. <\/p>\n

\"Water\"Water<\/p>\n

Water delivery only happens occassionally (Photo: Dave Gilchrist)<\/p>\n

Last Thursday morning, workers from the housing association Poplar Harca could be seen delivering drinking water to the residents in the five-storey block. They left 15 litres at the door of each flat.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunny how as soon as it\u2019s in the news we are getting water,\u201d said Maria, watching the workers arrive. \u201cI\u2019ve had water delivered once since November.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rahana confirmed that this was the first time the housing association had delivered water without the tenants having to phone and ask for it.<\/p>\n

And, some tenants report waiting on the phone for more than an hour to get through to someone to ask for water.<\/p>\n

Rahana said that her family had been going out and buying their own bottled water\u2014not something they would \u00adusually do.<\/p>\n

Another resident of Shillingford House said she wanted water delivered from the housing association. But they came at a time when the tap happened to be running.<\/p>\n

The water supply was \u201cvery disturbed most of the time\u201d. But \u201cthey saw that the tap was on and didn\u2019t give me any water. They said, \u2018No. You have tap water\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though now it is arriving, the \u00adbottled water is \u201cjust enough for ddrinking,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just affects you. You can\u2019t have a shower when you want. There\u2019s been times when I want to go out but I can\u2019t have a shower,\u201d Maria told Socialist Worker.<\/p>\n

\u201cI work 14-hour days, so I\u2019m getting home at half past 11pm and there is no water. I\u2019ve had to go into work early and shower at work.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Christmas Day, there was no water at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The housing association claims it has \u201cprovided alternative washing facilities\u201d. But residents say they have been told to go to Poplar Baths or the Mile End Leisure Centre to wash\u2014both are half an hour\u2019s walk away.<\/p>\n

And this is not an acceptable solution, especially for elderly and disabled people.<\/p>\n

Maria mentioned that she had been advised to use the facilities at her family\u2019s home. But she has no family members in the area\u2014they live on the other side of Essex.<\/p>\n

And there is a fight with the housing association to find a permanent solution to the problems\u2014or even to be taken seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginally, they said it\u2019s Thames Water. But Thames Water say it\u2019s nothing to do with them,\u201d said Maria.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get letters all the time that just say it\u2019s in progress. We get told just to wait.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn January, they said it\u2019s to do with a water tank. It just seems like no-one knows. I\u2019ve given up complaining to them\u2014they don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n

The supplier Thames Water has said that the problems of low water pressure are due to \u201cextensive new \u00addevelopment in the area\u201d. And this rings true for some residents.<\/p>\n


\n \"The\"The <\/a><\/p>\n

Who\u2019s really feeling the heat this summer?<\/a><\/p>\n

There are several new apartment blocks springing up in the area, such as the Waterside development, with 86\u00a0new homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we first started calling they couldn\u2019t tell us anything,\u201d Rahana told Socialist Worker. \u201cThe rumour is they did a new build and maybe they got the pipework wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, nearly eight months after \u00adtenants started reporting problems, Poplar Harca plans to install pumps that could help improve the water pressure to the blocks.<\/p>\n

Kowsar said, \u201cBasically, they are working on something to get water \u00adpressure. They keep sending letters. I think they said it would finish in June and now it\u2019s coming in September.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been like this for months. They keep sending letters again and again but the work still isn\u2019t done.\u201d <\/p>\n

The housing association has delayed doing the work while it consults with leaseholders\u2014those who have bought their property and might see their \u00adservice charge increase. It is following a process known as section 20.<\/p>\n

The mixture of social housing and private ownership on the estate leaves residents frustrated whenever there is a major repair to be done.<\/p>\n

But property solicitor Clair Phillips told the Guardian newspaper the delay wasn\u2019t necessary in an emergency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn circumstances where works are urgent, such as a prolonged loss of water supply, one would ordinarily expect the landlord to undertake the necessary works without delay and then apply to the first-tier tribunal for dispensation from the section 20\u00a0\u00adconsultation \u00adrequirements,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Maria says that in some ways the \u00adprivate tenants on the estate have an even harder time. Private renters can expect to pay \u00a31,000 per month for a bedroom in a shared flat in Shillingford House.<\/p>\n

The rooms are marketed to young \u00adprofessionals for the convenient location.<\/p>\n

But tenants who rent privately have been left in the dark by the housing association.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are not \u00adgetting water. They didn\u2019t know nothing about this until I told them,\u201d Maria told Socialist Worker<\/p>\n

As the climate crisis accelerates, the water shortage will only get worse<\/p>\n

The crisis at the Devons Road estate is a window into the world we can expect to see as housing infrastructure struggles to cope with climate breakdown.<\/p>\n

\"A\"A<\/p>\n

A makeshift tap made from a plastic bottle taped to the building (Photo: Dave Gilchrist)<\/p>\n

Burst pipes have left some 10,000 homes in London and Essex without running water this summer, sometimes for days at a time.<\/p>\n

In another part of the east London borough of Tower Hamlets, residents of Luke House went for nearly five days with no running water after a new water pump was installed that overwhelmed the ageing pipework.<\/p>\n

Residents were left queuing up with buckets to collect water to flush the toilets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t even cook, we can\u2019t even have a shower in the hot weather,\u201d Rubina told Sky News earlier this month. <\/p>\n

Dabil told Socialist Worker the issue is resolved now. But a makeshift tap made from a plastic bottle was still taped to the outside of the building.<\/p>\n

Everyone in the 21-storey tower block \u201cwas going to one pipe,\u201d said the Luke House resident. \u201cThere was a queue for water. It was a very big problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than two-thirds of England is now in drought, including all of London and Essex, after the driest July since records began.<\/p>\n

The water system is struggling as water levels in the reservoirs start to fall meaning companies have to pump more water. There are more leaks as pipes expand in the heat.<\/p>\n

But the effects of climate breakdown are felt very differently in Canary Wharf, less than two miles away from Shillingford House.<\/p>\n

There, city traders barely notice the heat as they travel from their air conditioned flats to their air conditioned offices along the air conditioned Elizabeth Line.<\/p>\n

They can cool off with a swim in the new Sea Lanes outdoor lido. They rarely wonder what might happen if the water runs out.
New apartments, including in Tower Hamlets, are competing with older buildings for water. <\/p>\n

And the Labour government\u2019s plans for data centres to support the artificial intelligence (AI) boom will add further strain on water supplies.<\/p>\n

There are already at least 20 data centres in the borough of Tower Hamlets and there are plans for more. This includes one at the site of the old Truman Brewery, where there is a campaign to stop the proposals.<\/p>\n

Data centres use large volumes of water for cooling servers. Staggeringly, the government doesn\u2019t mention water even once in its policy for delivering AI growth zones.<\/p>\n

Unless it takes the water issue seriously, we can expect to see more disasters like the one at Devons Road and it will be the poorest who see their taps run dry.<\/p>\n

Some names have been changed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Environment After one of the driest summers on record, thousands of people in Britain have been left without…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,528,154],"class_list":["post-109369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-britain","tag-environment","tag-housing"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117146034129039495","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}