Climate change in the South East

A water crisis

The South East has:

• the highest amount of water usage per person in Europe.
• less water available per person than in countries such as Spain and Greece.

Climate change research suggests that the region faces hotter, drier summers and warmer, wetter winters.

These changes will place more strain on our water resources.

Our 5 point plan

Our briefing (PDF† 52.8KB) puts forward 5 key actions that must be taken.

We want new developments in highly water-stressed areas to be ‘water neutral’. This means that they should cause no net increase in water use and that developers should:

• Fit new homes with highly water-efficient appliances.
• Offset the use of water in new homes by paying for water saving devices to be installed in existing houses.

Further Information

• Discussion paper: Achieving water neutrality in the South East
• Environment Agency: Thames Gateway can be water neutral
• Environment Agency: What is water neutrality

Next: More issues in the South East >

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