Last month in England was the driest July since records began almost two centuries ago. How concerned should we be?
Almost three-quarters of England and all of Wales are now officially in drought. But what does this mean and could taps eventually run dry?
• The headline of this article was amended on 7 August 2026 to refer to England and Wales, rather than the UK. Also, the average usage of 139 litres of water a day is for people in England and Wales, not in the UK as stated in an earlier version; and the 47bn kilolitres of water extracted from the environment in 2023 was in England only. Groundwater was added to the list of main sources of water.
Continue reading...
