The IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition is being held this week in Glasgow, covering the current state of the full water cycle for 7000 attendees through workshops, panels, showcases and more. It comes after England had its driest ever July and subsequent dry summer, causing the UK a severe (and ongoing) water shortage.
Most of England’s public water supply reservoirs are currently under 50% capacity, compared to a normal seasonal average of around 74%, river flows and groundwater levels are heavily depleted, whilst temporary use bans are affecting roughly 30 million people across major suppliers.
Outside of the public eye, section 57 notices and hundreds of abstraction restrictions are active, capping the amount of water farmers can take for irrigation.
The Environment Agency has warned that the UK needs 120% of average rainfall over the winter months just to exit drought conditions (of which 70% of England is currently in) by next spring, which raises the risk that restrictions could persist into 2027.
Public speculation largely blames the rise of AI and data center water useage for droughts and water supply issues, even though over half of data centers don’t use water cooling and organisations such as The British red cross are citing extreme heat and lack of rainfall as the cause.
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