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Welcome to Drought-Order.com
Latest
News (DECEMBER 2011). First winter Drought Order since
December 2003
South East Water welcomes a Government decision which
allows it to protect Ardingly Reservoir and secure future
water supplies for customers in Sussex, following a year of
low rainfall.
The Company applied to
Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
for special permission to temporarily change the terms of
its licence, which allows it to abstract a set amount of
water from the River Ouse.
The Secretary of State
granted the Drought Order on Wednesday 21st December 2011
which allows the Company to immediately reduce the minimum
flow in the River Ouse, below its Barcombe Water Treatment
Works, from 20 million litres a day, to 5 million litres per
day. The Drought Order is valid up to the 31st March 2012.
This will help “slow down” the rate of water being
drawn off at Ardingly Reservoir, enabling it to re-fill more
quickly this Winter, to help secure customers’ supplies
ahead of next Spring and Summer. Recent rainfall in December
has helped the situation and Ardingly Reservoir is now
approximately 30% full, compared to 12% full at the end of
November.
Lee Dance, Head of Water Resources and Environmental for
South East Water, said: “We rely on winter rainfall to
recharge our underground water sources and reservoirs to
take us through to the warmer spring and summer months. “The
Sussex area has seen an increase in rainfall during
December, which has certainly helped the current water
resource situation, but it by no means solves the problem.
We would still hope to see prolonged periods of rainfall
over the coming months in order to bring our water resource
levels back to ‘normal’ for this time of year.”
Ardingly reservoir is a strategic water resource which helps
serve more than 65,000 homes across large parts of East and
West Sussex.
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 Water
is scarce in England as well as in parts of Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland. With the lowest rainfall, groundwater and reservoir levels for
decades, large scale drought is already occurring in the UK . This new
website exists purely to provide current information and help in saving
water and in living through Drought Orders.
Whenever current Drought Orders end, there will be more to follow in
the future!
We have now experienced two consecutive years of seriously low
rainfall. resulting in low groundwater and drying reservoirs and
aquifers. Everyone can help to avoid the necessity of Drought Orders and
Standpipes - and save some money at the same time!
Drought-Order.com provides
up-to-date information on the situation at all the UK's Water Supply
Companies. Add us to your favourites!
| Fact:
London has less rainfall than Madrid and Rome. |
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