Drought has dominated the conversation across England this summer. But for businesses, the most important question now isn’t simply how dry it is.
It’s what the drought has shown us about our resilience.
We can’t control the weather. We can’t control when the next dry period arrives, how long it lasts or how quickly water resources recover.
We can control how prepared our businesses are.
Drought is no longer a distant risk
The scale of the current situation demonstrates why water resilience needs to be taken seriously.
The Environment Agency’s latest update shows that 71% of England is now in drought. England has received just 6% of its long-term average rainfall for August so far, while reservoir storage has fallen to 65.9% — 13.8% below the long-term average for this point in the year. Fifteen river flow sites are now classed as exceptionally low, and around a third of groundwater sites are below normal or lower.
The Government has also described the current conditions as a rapidly developing “flash drought”, with pressure being felt across water resources, agriculture, public supplies and the environment.
For businesses, however, the conversation needs to go beyond the weather forecast.
Because drought doesn’t have to mean a business is literally “without water” before it becomes a business risk.
The real question is: what is your exposure?
Every business uses water differently.
For some, it may be essential to production. For others, it could support cooling, cleaning, sanitation, food preparation, healthcare, welfare or other critical processes.
The important thing is understanding which parts of your operation depend on water — and what happens if that water becomes restricted, interrupted or unavailable.
Ask yourself:
- Which processes are genuinely water-critical?
- What is the minimum volume and quality of water needed to keep them operating?
- How quickly would a disruption affect each site?
- Which sites or operations are most exposed?
- Where are the single points of failure?
- What would happen if supply was restricted during a period of high demand?
- Who is responsible for making decisions if something goes wrong?
- Do you have a tested response plan?
These aren’t questions that should only be asked when a drought is declared.
They should form part of normal business continuity planning.
Preparedness matters because disruption costs more than water
The cost of a water disruption is rarely the cost of the water itself.
It can be the production that stops, the staff who cannot work, the products that cannot be manufactured, the cleaning or compliance requirements that cannot be met, the customers who experience disruption or the time and money required to recover.
The State of UK Water Resilience 2025–26 report highlights that 46% of larger companies and 39% of SMEs experienced a water disruption over a 12-month period. It also identifies downtime, safety and compliance exposure, wasted labour, product loss, recovery logistics and reputational damage as some of the wider consequences of disruption.
This means water continuity deserves the same level of consideration as other critical business risks such as power and IT.
The question for leadership teams is shifting from:
“Could water disruption happen to us?”
to:
“What is our exposure, and how quickly could we respond?”
So where does Waterscan come in?
Businesses don’t need to predict the weather.
They need to understand their own water risk.
That’s where good data, insight and planning can make a difference.
At Waterscan, we work with organisations to help them understand their water use and identify where water is critical to their operations. From there, businesses can begin to understand their exposure, prioritise the areas that need attention and develop practical resilience measures.
That might mean mapping critical water dependencies, understanding minimum water requirements, identifying single points of failure, assessing time-to-impact or developing and testing a continuity plan.
It is about moving from awareness to action.
Resilience starts before disruption
The House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee has highlighted a wider gap in drought preparedness, noting that despite their dependence on water for business continuity, key sectors such as energy, industry and agriculture do not currently have formal requirements to plan for drought.
For businesses, that makes voluntary preparedness even more important.
You don’t have to wait for a restriction, interruption or emergency to understand your exposure.
You can start now.
Understand your water dependencies.
Identify where you’re vulnerable.
Plan for what happens if supply is disrupted.
Test whether your response would actually work.
Because resilience isn’t about predicting exactly what will happen next.
It’s about making sure your business is ready for more than one possible future.
The drought is the warning. Resilience is the response.
The current drought will eventually ease. Rain will return, reservoirs will recover and restrictions will eventually be lifted.
But the underlying challenge doesn’t disappear with the next rainfall.
The UK is facing a more complex water environment, shaped by changing weather patterns, rising demand, ageing infrastructure and increasing pressure on water resources. The State of UK Water Resilience 2025–26 report identifies these pressures as contributing to a higher likelihood of disruption for organisations that rely on continuous water supply.
The businesses that use this moment to understand their exposure will be better placed to respond to the next one.
We can’t control the weather.
We can control how prepared our businesses are.
If you’re unsure how resilient your organisation is to water disruption, Waterscan can help you understand where the risks are and where to start.
