Risk and the Management of Severe Droughts in England and Wales

Following serious problems with public water supply in England and Wales (E&W) in 1995/96, the British Government asked all water companies to develop drought contingency plans (DCP) and agree them, by March 2000, with the Environment Agency. The Environment Agency (referred to hereafter as the Agency) is the environmental regulator of the water industry in E&W with the task of ensuring the proper management of water resources. Local government is not directly involved in water resources in E&W. DCPs for public water supply are intended to ensure that measures are taken early enough in a drought to ensure that communities do not run out of water or do not experience serious restrictions in supply that could endanger public health. The Plans are designed to manage this risk, which changes constantly through a drought. The drought actions contained within the DCP are a trade-off between more frequent minor inconveniences for the public and the environment and potentially catastrophic impacts towards the end of a drought. Following the adoption in E&W of a national procedure for assessing the yield of a water resource system, the DCPs have added significance as they can impact the yield. Water resource management in E&W is changing from a "Predict and Provide" model of resource development to a "Plan, Manage and Monitor" model. This new approach places much greater emphasis on maximising the output from the current system of resources. The improvement in managing risk, as reflected in DCPs, is one area where improvement may be made and the yield increased. It is the area that is explored within this paper.