Water companies in England and Wales are required by Statute to revise their contingency plans for coping with periods of drought every three years. Our latest draft Drought Contingency Plan (DCP) sets out the actions we propose to maintain a reliable mains delivered supply of water to customers for as long as possible during a period of drought.

We are all at risk from the impact of drought. If both customers and the company respond by implementing the actions set out in our plan, we expect to avoid the possibility of a wider failure of the water supply system. If the staged implementation of the measures we propose is not adequate to curtail demand, then we may need to plan for interruptions to household supplies. This would be necessary to maintain secure water supplies to essential water users, large businesses and vulnerable customers. However, we believe that the actual risk of such an occurrence is very low.

At this stage, we are interested in your views on stakeholder risks and the proposals we have set out for the management of resources during severe droughts. If you wish your views to be considered as we develop our final plan, you should respond by the 4th of February 2012. Any representations you wish to make can be sent by e-mail to water.resources@defra.gsi.gov.uk, or by post to:

The Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Drought Plan consultation
Water Availability and Quality Programme
DEFRA
Area 2C Ergon House
Horseferry Road
London SW1P 2AL

For convenience we have split the plan into sections for ease of reference and downloading. If you would prefer a paper copy of our technical report please contact Corporate Affairs on 0117 9665 881 or email corporate.affairs.co.uk.

Draft DCP 11 non technical summary
This is a brief overview of the company supply system and description of the contingency measures we would take and those that would impact customer’s water use. If you are not sure if you wish to read the full report, download this first.

Draft DCP 11 Report
This is the full technical report and non technical summary, covering supply area, risks of drought, demand management, provision of alternative supplies and communications plan.

Draft DCP 11 App 1-8
Appendices to the main report with tabulated contingency actions, sample drought order applications and summary of legislation.

Draft DCP 11 App 9-10
Additional appendices containing environmental baseline monitoring report for rivers supplied from our reservoirs.

Please note that Appendix 9 containing site details of emergency treatment installation and pipe arrangements for Gurney Slade and Honeyhurst referred to in the main report has been redacted. This has been done on the advice of our security consultant with the agreement of the Secretary of State, in order to comply with National security requirements.

Click here to see our 2011 draft Drought Contingency Plan non technical summary.
Click here to view Bristol Water's 2011 draft Drought Contingency Plan technical report.
Click here to view Bristol Water's 2011 draft Drought Contingency Plan appendices 1-8.
Click here to view Bristol Water's 2011 draft Drought Contingency Plan appendices 9-10.