Drought declared in Yorkshire amid low reservoir and river levels

Yorkshire has officially entered drought status because of low water levels in reservoirs and rivers, the Environment Agency has announced.The region was in “prolonged dry weather” status since the end of July after a lack of spring and summer rainfall but was upgraded to “drought” on Friday.It follows an usually dry September, with the ongoing lack of rainfall into the autumn months causing the flow in rivers and groundwater levels to reach very low levels in parts of Yorkshire, officials said.The region joins all of central, southern and eastern England in drought status while the North East and North West remain in prolonged dry weather.Vicki Townend, area environment manager for the Environment Agency in Yorkshire, urged people to be aware of the impacts of drought and use “a little less water” to speed up the area’s recovery.She said Yorkshire has had the fifth driest April to September on record.People have been urged to use a little less water as supplies recover (Richard McCarthy/PA)PA Archive“This ongoing lack of rainfall means the flow in rivers and groundwater levels in certain parts of our area are very low and have now reached our trigger for declaring a drought,” she said.“Even if we receive a few weeks of rain, we cannot quickly reverse the effects of the lack of rainfall during a very dry spring and summer.”Ms Townend said the Environment Agency will continue to closely monitor the situation while implementing Yorkshire’s drought plan.The ongoing pressure on water resources across the country comes after what has been provisionally declared the hottest summer on record.The UK saw successive heatwaves as well as long spells of no rainfall in some areas, while autumn rain has so far been insufficient to offset many of the impacts.Read MoreMore widely, it is facing increasingly extreme weather such as heatwaves, droughts and intense rainfall because of climate change, which is driven mostly by burning fossil fuels for power, heating and transport.The hot summer has led to reduced water levels, officials said (Dave Higgens/PA)PA Archive“As we see more impacts from climate change, heavier rainfall and drier summers will become more frequent,” Ms Townend said.“We encourage people to be aware of the impacts of drought and use a little less water to speed up the recovery from drought.”The Government and Environment Agency said they continue to scrutinise water company actions, ensuring they are adhering to their legally-binding drought plans to conserve supplies, support communities, fix leaks quickly and reduce demand.As part of its heightened incident response to the pressure on water resources across the country, the National Drought Group – which includes the Government, Met Office, regulators, water firms, farmers and conservation experts – is meeting weekly to coordinate action.Water Minister Emma Hardy said: “The recent rainfall is not yet enough to replenish all the water we’ve used over the spring and summer, and the Yorkshire drought declaration highlights the situation is still serious.“Long-term resilience against our changing climate is a priority for this Government.“Our strengthened Water Bill will start a decade-long journey to a very different water system, including nine new major reservoirs to secure supplies.”