How close is England to running out of water? | BBC News

Where I am now would normally be completely underwater.

I'm in a reservoir and it can hold billions of litres of water.

When it's full it would be enough for everyone in the UK to take almost four baths.

But have a look at that. It's hit a record low.

Some of our reservoirs are exceptionally low and parts of England are now officially in severe drought.

And you might be thinking how can that be happening in places when we're also seeing weather like this?

So there are some big questions what happens next and how close are we to running out of water?

Okay much

of England is in drought and it's affecting around 50 million people so the areas in brown those are the places that are in drought but some of southern England

is in severe drought and that's more serious. It's where the drought is really starting to hit home.

So those are the places in red in Sussex and also in the southwest.

Now because of what's happening people are being urged to be really careful with water.

We've already got our our two teenage sons on a timer for how long they're allowed to spend in the shower.

I hate to say this I've got a lovely garden it's important to me but I just use shower water.

When they're building data centres and proposing stuff like that it's a bit like well does my impact actually make a difference.

Now we'll be looking at what you can do to save water

later but this is a story that's not just about water

it's also about the weather because 2026

saw the hottest summer on record for

the UK that's according to the Met Office and it's our reservoirs that have taken a massive hit so one in

Somerset, Wimbleball on Exmoor, that was full, 100% full, full to the brim earlier in 2026, but it dropped to a record low of around percent.

So how serious is this and how does it compare? Hello Liz, thanks for talking to us.

Hi, good to see you again. This year I think has been very different. We started 2026 on a particularly wet note.

We had one of the wettest winters that we've seen,

you know, on record and those water levels were really well replenished as we started the year.

But we then went into this exceptional dry and hot period and so almost went into more of a flash drought.

It happened really quickly. That turnaround from too much rain to too little rain happened very quickly.

And I think that's very much a signal of climate change. So this drought is different to the ones that we've seen before, like this one.

This is back in 1976 when water supplies dropped so low that people used standpipes in the street to collect water using buckets.

But back to now and what could be next for us?

Well, a lot depends on the weather and getting above average rainfall. But what if we don't?

So my name is Mark Rice and I'm Area Director for the Environment Agency in Devon Cornwall on the Isles of Scilly.

If we get average or below average rainfall, we're going to be potentially in a prolonged drought situation into next summer as well.

That doesn't necessarily impact on public water supply,

but it does mean that we'll have to work really closely with

the water companies to ensure that we can manage public water supplies sensibly and ensure there's no disruption to supply either this winter or into next summer.

So we're not going to run out? I'm confident that we won't run out of water this winter. How close have we come, though?

We weren't close to running out of water. We need to be clear with the public that our water resources are reduced, but they're not under threat.

So this isn't a civil emergency, but the government says steps are being taken to tackle things.

But when we've been out reporting on this story and standing by some very, very low reservoirs, it's been clear that some people are really concerned.

How does this compare to previous years? Oh, it's a lot lower. It's lower than we've ever known it.

Do you question whether we actually can leave some more reservoirs in the future? It's shocking when you look at it.

You can see where the water level should be or could be. We need some rain.

Now, water companies do plan for drought and they can bring in water restrictions

to try and bring down demand, things like hosepipe bans, and we've seen lots of those introduced over the summer in 2026.

But different water companies cover different parts of the country,

and for the south-west of England, much of it is covered by southwest water.

Lots of people point the finger at water companies

and suggest there hasn't been enough investment in infrastructure, including reservoirs, and that's left us vulnerable.