Anglian Water kept supplying over 1.2 billion liters of drinking water a day through the hot, dry summer of 2025 without restricting customers. Twelve months later it could not. A Temporary Use Ban took effect at 1am on July 11, 2026, and on October 30, 2026 the Environment Agency reported it still in place across the whole company area except Hartlepool.
Where the drought now bites
The Environment Agency's report for the week to October 29 placed Anglian Water's Fenland and Norfolk, Norwich and Broads zones at drought level 2, and Ruthamford, Lincolnshire and Suffolk at drought level 1. Grafham Water was one of the reservoirs classed as exceptionally low.
A system with little slack
That water comes from around 400 boreholes, eight reservoirs and nine rivers. Projected rainfall in its region is 2.14 mm a day, against a national average of 2.85 mm. In 2025 it released an extra 875 million liters down the River Nene for farmers and other abstractors, an average of 35 million liters a day, and recovered the volume by refilling its reservoirs later.
The longer gap
The company's 2024 Water Resources Management Plan projects a deficit of 593 Ml/d by 2050 without action, around half of today's supply, with 23 of 27 water resource zones short. The main answers are a 580 km interconnecting grid, of which 280 km had been built by June 2026, and two reservoirs: the Fens, operational in the late 2030s, and Lincolnshire, around 2040.
Until then, the system depends on existing sources, lower demand and lower leakage. Leakage moved the wrong way in 2025/26, rising to 215.27 Ml/d.
How long the ban may last, how the grid and reservoirs change the supply picture, and how regulation and finance support the £11 billion program are examined in the report. The full report, Water Systems Overview: Anglian Water, is available for USD 499. For a free overview, read the Anglian Water Utility Snapshot.