The Effects of Prolonged Dry Weather

Prolonged periods of dry weather reduce river flows and groundwater levels, which affects the reliability and sustainability of water supplies, even following times of sustained rainfall.

The Environment Agency has published guidelines for non-water company abstraction licence holders who have been affected by prolonged dry weather. Following a very dry spring, June has brought ‘above average rainfall’, but as James Dodds explains, “It will take more than a few rainfall events to replenish the drying stocks!”.

Prolonged dry weather could result in the following negative effects: 

• Limit the ability to irrigate crops
• Reduce the quality and quantity of crops grown
• Increase the difficulty of licence holders keeping within their abstraction licence volumes
• Decrease the reliability of normal water sources
• Create a lack of drinking water for livestock
• Limit water supplies to private properties
• Reduce water to managed wetlands and other environmental features

So, it’s time to be proactive and ask yourself, do you have enough water? 

During prolonged dry periods, water demand increases and there is a risk of exceeding licensed volumes. However, the Environment Agency acknowledges that some abstractors will struggle to keep to their licence conditions during these periods and as a result, there are several potential options available to improve your access to water.

Short-term Options

These are flexible abstraction solutions that can be agreed with the Environment Agency within a matter of weeks.

• Temporary trade of licensed quantity between licences abstracting from the same source
• Temporary abstraction outside licence conditions:
• abstracting water outside of licensed period (e.g. to fill a reservoir when water is available)
• abstracting over the maximum licensed quantity (in some circumstances this may only be possible by ‘borrowing’ from future allocations)

Long-term Considerations

• Audit your abstraction from source to distribution to ensure water is being used in the most efficient way
• Put in a storage reservoir for all or part of your annual water requirement to build resilience
• Vary your abstraction licence to change the abstraction period or increase the annual quantity of water
• Licence trading with another licence holder (‘buying water’)

All changes to licences (short or long term) must be in line with the relevant abstraction licensing strategy and must not impact the environment or existing water users.

The future of water resources

The last few years have seen changing weather patterns, including the frequency of prolonged dry weather, which may only continue to become more extreme. This requires some forward-thinking by abstractors as there may not always be the ability to abstract a bit more water. So, the question to ask is… How can water resilience be increased? Points to consider include:

• Can you improve your water efficiency?
• Are you able to alter your cropping plans or build a storage reservoir to fill during the winter months?
• Do you have the option to buy water from other abstraction licence holders?

How Envireau Water can help…

Our team has 25 years’ experience managing water resources, overcoming problems in both periods of minimal and excess water. Our relationship with the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales built over many years of negotiating licences enables us to find effective solutions and push boundaries. So, it’s time to be proactive, evaluate your water resources and get in touch with our technical lead James Dodds on JamesDodds@envireauwater.co.uk or 01332 871 870.