The Environment Agency has launched a new consultation on drought plan guidance for water companies.

The Agency is seeking views on changes to the water company drought plan guideline (WC DPG) and the new and updated supplementary guidance.

The update of the water company drought plan guideline takes into account the latest research, practice and experience of dry weather.

The EA IS is consulting on the following documents:

• Water company drought plan guideline (revised September 2019)
• Environmental assessment (supplementary guidance)
• Actions in an extreme drought (supplementary guidance)
• Worked examples (supplementary guidance)

The EA formally reviews and updates its guidance to water companies on preparing their drought plans every 5 years.

The water company drought plan guideline has been updated to ensure that the technical information is up to date and that lessons learnt from recent research and experience of drought has been incorporated. The updated draft has been reviewed internally within the Environment Agency.

Deadline to submit responses to the consultation is 11:45pm on 18 October 2019 – click here to access the consultation.