Whilst many think of the UK as a wet group of nations, drought isn’t uncommon. How should it be managed? What lessons have been identified from recent droughts? And, what more needs to happen to build resilience?

Because our weather and climate is very variable, droughts happen quite frequently in the UK, having occurred in recent times in 1995, 2003/4, 2006, 2011/2012, 2018 and 2022.

Water resources management plans set a long-term programme of resource development to meet water demand and specific drought plans set out the operational response for when drought is approaching and is declared.

After the last drought in 2022 several lessons were identified on how things might be managed better.

These include water companies better-understanding and managing how their water treatment and supply assets function under extreme hot and dry conditions and high water demand.

With recent droughts coming on quickly as a result of particularly dry spring and early summer weather, drought permitting needs to be accelerated to enable drought response measures to have greatest benefit in conserving supplies. Scotland's two week timeframe is considerably quicker than in England and Wales.

There also needs to be clearer and more strident communication to water customers of the need to save water, why, how, and exactly where in the country this is important.

Finally, as smart water metering becomes more widespread, honing the use of resulting data as well as data on the effectiveness of public awareness campaigns on drought will become important in building good drought awareness across society.