Faced with what could end up as the wettest April since records began, media coverage of the current drought, rain and floods in the UK suggests that the public are failing to get the message on water issues.
Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman has reiterated her support for a national water grid as she took questions about drought in the House of Commons on 26 April.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has published the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) final plan for Dalgety Bay.
Water minister Richard Benyon has suggested that it is time for Britain to create a national water grid, according to a report in the Sunday Times.
The UK Government has said that it is on target to make up to £3 billion of annual savings on infrastructure projects with the publication this morning of the first annual report of the three-year Infrastructure Cost Review programme.
The first year programme of work also included a commitment to address the problems of cyclicality in the water sector as part of a joint study with Ofwat.
The Environment Agency has warned that despite the recent wet weather, groundwater levels are still the same as last week.
Severn Trent Water is looking at how water trading can be brought about in a plan to flow water from the Midlands into the drought-hit east to help Anglian Water.
Drought has forced seven water companies to introduce water restrictions today, affecting about 20 million people across southern and eastern England.
A private fishing lake owner has been fined £3,300 for illegally taking water from a stream in an area of ‘potential drought’ in Lincolnshire. He was also ordered to pay full costs of £3,873.
Food producer Bakkavor was fined £8,000 for discharging dirty effluent into an Old Leake stream at Boston last week.
UK water companies are invited to join an upcoming webinar which will explore how the sector can take indirect potable reuse (IPR) from concept to full-scale operational reality.
James Sumsion, CEO of predictive water intelligence specialists Kohtari, says the water sector needs to take a giant leap forward, so that it can anticipate and act upon water quality issues - rather than merely react.
Ray Moulds, Sales Director at Flood Control International, takes a look at how automated sliding floodgates are supporting secondary containment at water and sewerage company sites.
With the UK government demanding a 50% reduction in storm overflow spills by 2029, the era of reactive management is over. Speaking in the House of Commons on 21 July 2025, then environment secretary Steve Reed said, “This Government will cut water companies’ sewage pollution in half by the end of the decade.”