Our Drought Plan
All water companies are required by the Government to produce a Drought Plan, which sets out what we would do to maintain water supplies to customers in the event of a drought.
The plans are drawn up in agreement with our regulator, the Environment Agency. The plans are reviewed and revised every three and half years.
Drought is a naturally occurring phenomenon when rainfall levels are less than normally experienced, resulting in low river, reservoir and groundwater levels. Droughts have occurred in the past and are likely to be experienced in the future.
What measures would we take?
Our draft drought plan shows the actions we would take to maintain secure supplies to all customers during a period of drought.
As all droughts are different in terms of location, extent, severity and impact on the supply system the drought plan needs to be flexible to account for a range of possible scenarios.
The plan therefore gives an agreed framework of actions to allow a drought to be best managed dependent on conditions.
The drought plan includes the following elements to allow us to manage a drought situation:
- Our Communication Plan
- Measures that might be required to reduce customer demand
- Measure that might be needed to obtain extra water supplies
- Details of how we will monitor the effects of the drought and measures taken under the drought plan
Consultation
We are currently revising our Drought Plan. Our draft plan is available for consultation until 6th March 2012. The draft Drought Plan and a summary document are available on the right hand side of this page. Paper copies are also available at our Head Office in Bradford.
Environmental Assessment Reports and the Environmental Monitoring Plan are also available. To request a copy please email:
water.resources@yorkshirewater.co.uk
If you have any comments on our draft Drought Plan please send them to:
water.resources@defra.gsi.gov.uk
Or write to:
The Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
Drought Plan Consultation
Water Availability and Quality Programme
Area 2C, Ergon House
Horseferry Road
London SW1P 2AL
We do not consider any parts of the plan to be commercially confidential either for us or for any third party, therefore we have published the complete plan. However, sensitive site specific information has been removed or presented in a non specific manner in the interest of national security. This includes descriptions of sources of water supply and treatment works.
If you want to know more about our drought plan you can read the documents on the right-hand side of this page.
