Severe drought declared across six areas of England

Severe drought has been declared in parts of Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex and West Sussex, with public water supplies under threat.

The severe drought status was confirmed on 15 October 2026, according to the Environment Agency. It follows the United Kingdom's hottest summer on record and the driest April to September in more than a century in south-east and south-west England, according to The Guardian.

Reservoir levels in the affected areas are far below normal for autumn. Ardingly reservoir in Sussex was 19% full and serves about 95,000 properties in Haywards Heath, Uckfield and surrounding areas. Wimbleball storage was at 16%, while the Environment Agency would expect storage of about 75% at this time of year. In Cornwall, Drift and Stithians reservoirs supply 56,000 households, and the Tottiford and Venford group supplies 47,000 households in Devon.

Overall reservoir storage in England was 54% in the week ending 6 October, with only four reservoirs recording an increase and all others declining, according to government monitoring. England had not seen a severe drought since 1976, according to the BBC.

Three water companies, South East Water, South West Water and Southern Water, want to impose non-essential user bans on businesses to protect supplies. Water minister Emma Hardy has instructed the Environment Agency to prioritise protecting public water supplies where there is an unavoidable trade-off with environmental rules. The National Drought Group said the government and the Environment Agency would move to daily monitoring of reservoir and river levels.

The declaration is the latest step in a dry year. Drought had been declared across half of England by 29 July after record low rainfall and high temperatures, and Devon and Cornwall and Wessex, covering Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and south Gloucestershire, were added after a record dry July. By August, almost three-quarters of England was in drought, with 45 million people in a drought area and 27 million living under restrictions on water use. The Environment Agency later recorded 226 incidents linked to drought, including algal blooms, low flows and fish deaths.