Despite 2025-26 being a relatively wet winter in the UK, it only takes a couple of dry months in April and May for alarms to start sounding about water scarcity – and the UK is not alone.
This is particularly true in the south-east of the UK, where climate change, population growth and a rising demand for water mean the area is always under the shadow of water stress. Part of the problem is that no new reservoirs have been built in England since 1991, though 10 are either currently under construction or planned.
What’s the impact of climate change?
According to the Environment Agency, it will cause hotter and drier summers, leading to a reduction of 10-15 per cent in the amount of water available by 2050. Some rivers could have their flows reduced by up to 80 per cent. In the same time period, the population of the UK is expected to rise from 67 to 75 million, potentially increasing demand by almost 12 per cent.
Is there anything we can do?
Yes, heaps. Water companies need to reduce the amount of leakage from water pipes, while building regulations should be brought in to drive greater systemic water efficiency. Metering can help consumers reduce the amount of water they use.
And then there’s the new reservoirs that are needed to increase capacity. Transferring water from one part of the country (for example, the North-west) to another (the South-east) is another part of the solution.
The former chief executive of the Environment Agency, Sir James Bevan, has said that we should be able to get our per capita water usage down from 140 to 100 litres a day. “In parts of Denmark, they use just 80 litres a day,” he said.
Does all this have an impact on wildlife?
Yes, certainly. Lowered water levels in rivers and streams effectively reduce the available habitat for aquatic species such as fish, amphibians and invertebrates. “Groundwater-fed chalk streams in southern England dry up in their upper reaches, creating isolated ponds and fragmenting their ecological connectivity,” says the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
With lower overall quantities of water in freshwater habitats, including lakes and ponds, concentrations of nutrients from untreated sewage and run-off from agriculture increase, leading to excessive algal growth and catastrophic eutrophication which can result in mass die-offs of living things in rivers affected. Terrestrial wildlife such as hedgehogs and garden birds will also struggle when conditions are too dry as they find it harder to forage for worms and insects in the ground.
This isn’t just a UK problem, is it?
Definitely not – many parts of the world suffer much greater impacts from water scarcity. According to the Pacific Institute, conflict over water resources is reaching record levels, with 420 water-related violent incidents recorded in 2024. This compares with just 24 in the year 2000. Not surprisingly, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia witnessed the most incidents.
What’s causing this water scarcity?
In many ways, the same factors that are creating it in the UK – climate change and over use. The Council on Foreign Relations says agriculture is a major issue, accounting for roughly 70 per cent of all global freshwater use, with certain crops such as rice and cotton being especially water-thirsty. Climate change is leading to less predictable rainfall and rising temperatures increase evaporation from the soil.
Is anything being done to resolve the situation in those parts of the world worst affected?
Yes – governments do work together to try and share water resources fairly. For example, there are nearly 300 transboundary water agreements though questions to how well these operate remain. Despite ongoing political tensions in the Middle East, Jordan and Israel have a peace agreement which specifically includes how water (from the rivers of the Jordan system) is managed.
What are the impacts on wildlife?
WWF reports that an estimated 4 million km2 of wetlands have been lost since 1970 as a result of the unsustainable water use (largely for agriculture), resulting in an 85 per cent decline in freshwater species, the steepest loss recorded for any global ecosystem.
On the Indian subcontinent, the damming of the River Indus has resulted in increasing fragmentation of the habitat of the endemic Indus river dolphin, with the species eliminated from 10 sections of the river. The total population is estimated at around 2,000 individuals, but that’s nearly double what it was 25 years ago thanks to intensive conservation efforts.
What other species are impacted by water scarcity?
To give just two examples – the Devil’s Hole pupfish, a small 3cm-long fish found only in Death Valley National Park in the US state of Nevada, has been impacted by abstraction for agriculture which has reduced water levels in the aquifer where it lives.
The entire population fluctuates between a low of 100-200 in the winter and 300-500 in the summer. Elsewhere, in Central Asia, the saiga antelope, a species of the region’s unique steppe habitat, has spectacularly recovered from near extinction in the early 21st century to a population nearing 3 million today.
But with that conservation success comes stresses, with one research paper identifying “competition with livestock over scarce freshwater resources” as a key driver of conflict in Kazakhstan, a stronghold for the species.
