The drought situation in England has continued to worsen over the past two weeks, despite some rainfall across parts of the country. According to the Environment Agency, reservoir levels are exceptionally low, with national storage at 54% of capacity, around 20% below the average for this time of year. On 15 October, the government declared severe drought in parts of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, East Sussex and West Sussex. Public water supply reservoirs and groundwater storage are continuing to decline in many areas. There are growing concerns that farmers may not be able to refill water storage reservoirs over the winter because reservoir levels are so low and river flows remain below normal, particularly across central and southern England.
The ongoing drought is being caused by a combination of persistent low rainfall, record-breaking high temperatures, accelerated soil and water evaporation, and long-term infrastructure pressures. A prolonged lack of rain through the spring, summer, and autumn of 2026 left rivers, groundwater, and reservoirs severely depleted. Successive summer heat waves have dramatically increased water demand and accelerated moisture loss from soil and water bodies. High air temperatures speed up evaporation rates from rivers, reservoirs, and agricultural land, creating a feedback loop where dry ground cools the air less and pushes temperatures even higher. And historical underinvestment in new reservoir capacity and high rates of pipe leakage have left water supplies vulnerable during dry spells.
Human-caused climate change has shifted seasonal weather patterns, making hotter, drier summers and extreme heat waves significantly more frequent and intense. That means this year’s drought is unlikely to be a one-off. On the contrary, it is more likely a harbinger of things to come. This was the year that the climate threat became real. Far from being a slow-moving crisis which will effect us at some point in the future, climate change is now giving rise to sudden and disastrous weather events in the present. These events often strike too suddenly for us to be able to react to them. As a recent leader in the New Scientist points out, we would be fools not to prepare our infrastructure now for future severe weather and its fallout.
The obvious way to prepare for future droughts is to build more reservoirs. Unfortunately building new reservoirs in the UK seems to be extremely difficult, and no new reservoirs have been opened in the UK since 1991. There are several reasons for this, including high costs, planning hurdles, and environmental concerns. But the main reason is the 1989 privatization of the water industry, which shifted focus toward short-term profits and way from long-term infrastructure investments. It is no coincidence that the last new reservoir was completed in the UK just two years after privatization took place. Aside from the shift towards short-term profits, privatization has created a fragmented industry where no single actor has either the resources or motivation to invest in large-scale infrastructure projects.
Another way to prepare for future droughts would be to fix leaky water pipes. Leaky pipes in the UK are a major issue, with water companies losing nearly 3 billion litres daily across the grid. This is not just a waste of water; it also creates other issues such as structural damage to buildings, health hazards caused by mould, and water contamination caused by pathogens being sucked back into the water supply. Water companies argue that stopping 100% of water loss is physically impossible and presents massive technical, financial, and regulatory challenges. In reality, the root cause of this lack of action is the prioritization of corporate profits, shareholder dividends, and executive bonuses over infrastructure improvements.
We are facing a situation where we know droughts will only become more frequent and severe over time, but are unable to update our infrastructure to adequately prepare for this. Both of these problems have the same underlying cause: the capitalist system we are all forced to live under. Capitalism is directly causing climate change with its structural demand for continuous economic growth and reliance on fossil fuels. It is also responsible for the privatization of water in the UK, which is the reason we cannot update our ageing infrastructure. Thus not only is capitalism devastating the environment; it is also stopping us from acting to mitigate the effects of this devastation. It is only through socialist change that we will prevent climate catastrophe and build a world which is habitable for all.
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