Southern Water has applied for a drought permit to continue using the River Test in Hampshire.
It is seeking permission from the Environment Agency to amend its licence – which currently states abstraction must stop when water flow levels dip below 355 million litres per day, to set the lower flow level of 265 million litres a day.
The company anticipates an ongoing reliance on drought permits until 2024 as it works to bolster supplies away from the Test.
As part of the drought permit process, Southern must prove it is doing everything it can to reduce water use. To that end a hosepipe ban will be put in place in certain areas – the first in seven years.
Abstraction restrictions are in place for the River Itchen, also in Hampshire.
To address the deficit Southern Water signed an agreement with neighbouring Portsmouth Water for 15 million litres per day that began earlier this month.
Nigel Hepworth, water resources policy manager for Southern, said the contribution from Portsmouth Water is helping the company meet its lower abstraction targets
Hepworth said the company has longer term “grander plans” to secure alternative water supplies for the future but these will not be fully integrated for ten years, meaning the region will continue to rely on drought permits in the interim.
Southern Water’s plans include a reservoir in Havant and a desalination plant as part of £800 million investments to secure water supply across Havant as part of an interconnected network over the coming decade.
The first phase of these plans will see added supplies easing the reliance on the Test from 2024.
The drought permit applied for will be valid for six months to compensate for the low rainfall in the region in autumn and winter 2018 as well as this summer.