{"id":98448,"date":"2025-05-13T16:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T16:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/98448\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T16:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T16:03:09","slug":"water-could-be-restricted-for-16000000-people-in-uk-ahead-of-potential-drought-news-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/98448\/","title":{"rendered":"Water could be restricted for 16,000,000 people in UK ahead of potential drought | News UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"\"
\n\t\tThe Environment Agency has warned a drought could be on its way this summer (Picture: EPA\/Getty)<\/p>\n

The chief executive of a water company has warned that restrictions could be put in place this summer<\/a> as the Environment Agency<\/a> (EA) says the UK could face a drought.<\/p>\n

Chris Weston, who\u2019s been in charge of Thames Water since last year, said the company is doing \u2018all we need to\u2019 to prepare for potential water shortages.<\/p>\n

Three years ago the firm came \u2018dangerously close\u2019 to running out of water for its 16million customers during record summer heatwaves.<\/p>\n

And now the EA says we could see droughts again this summer after the driest start to spring in England<\/a> for 69 years.<\/p>\n

England has had its driest March since 1961, and April only had about half of its normal rainfall, the agency said.<\/p>\n

Although there aren\u2019t any areas currently in drought conditions, the EA warns there is a \u2018medium risk\u2019 of drought this summer if we don\u2019t see sustained rainfall.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tChris Weston in parliament earlier today (Picture: House of Commons\/UK Parliament\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Speaking to MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Mr Weston said: \u2018At the moment, from what I can see, we have learned the lessons from the situation in 2022 and we are doing all we need to do at the moment to prepare for water shortages.<\/p>\n

\u2018I hope that is not necessary.<\/p>\n

\u2018I am confident we won\u2019t run out of water, I\u2019m not confident we won\u2019t have to restrict usage, because that will depend on what the weather does and what rainfall happens between now and the summer.\u2019<\/p>\n

There currently aren\u2019t any UK water providers planning hosepipe bans for the summer, but the EA says companies might need to bring in restrictions in the coming months.<\/p>\n

The agency is working with farmers to help make sure they can keep watering their plants.<\/p>\n

At Thames Water, Mr Weston says the company is making sure assets are available, reservoirs are as full as possible, and that critical maintenance is carried out \u2018so we are as prepared as best we can be for a drought\u2019.<\/p>\n

Speaking last week, Water Minister Emma Hardy said: \u2018Our water infrastructure is crumbling after years of underinvestment.<\/p>\n

\u2018Water companies must go further and faster to cut leaks and build the infrastructure needed to secure our water supply.<\/p>\n

The government has secured over \u00a3104billion of private sector investment to fund essential infrastructure, including nine new reservoirs to secure our future water supply into the decades to come.\u2019<\/p>\n

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During the same committee hearing, Mr Weston defended accepting a huge \u00a3195,000 bonus only three months into his job.<\/p>\n

He says he \u2018did make a difference\u2019 during his first three months in the role at the struggling water company.<\/p>\n

The company, which is about \u00a316billion in debt, has come under intense scrutiny<\/a> in recent months and was handed a \u00a33billion loan earlier this year<\/a> to stop it completely running out of money.<\/p>\n

Mr Weston says he \u2018helped stabilise the company\u2019 within his first couple of months on the job, despite being the fifth chief executive in five years.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u2018I started to put in place the new organisational structure, I started to give people confidence and reassurance about how proud they could be of the job they did and what we were setting out to do.<\/p>\n

\u2018I was the fifth chief executive in five years \u2013 that creates a confusion for people in the company.<\/p>\n

\u2018I think it required clearer direction, which I have given. 16 months in I\u2019m quite pleased with the progress we\u2019re making.<\/p>\n

\u2018It is a big ship to turn around. It is very difficult.\u2019<\/p>\n

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\tNews Updates<\/p>\n

Stay on top of the headlines with daily email updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Environment Agency has warned a drought could be on its way this summer (Picture: EPA\/Getty) The chief…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,39743,12,70,45753,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-98448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-environment-agency","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-thames","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114501373381520441","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}