A MAJOR reservoir serving south Essex is drying up at an alarming rate as the country is beset by another heatwave.

Shocking images show Hanningfield Reservoir looking almost empty as temperatures soar yet again, with an amber weather warning for extreme heat announced by The Met Office yesterday. 

The reservoir is one of the main sources of water for residents in Southend, and the London Boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge, and Thurrock.

Built in 1957, at 100 per cent the reservoir stores 26,075 million litres of water, the equivalent of 10,430 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

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Denise Boland, a regular visitor to the Hanningfield Reservoir, said it is sad to see how quickly the water has dried up.

 “It is shocking to see the difference in just a few weeks,” she said.
“We have to think about the impact this is going to have on wildlife.”

Droughts are set to be declared in some parts of the UK, but is currently unclear whether that will also include Essex at this point. 

A hose pipe ban has yet to be enforced across the county, however, a spokesman for Essex and Suffolk Water has not ruled out the possibility enforcing one as bosses moved to urge customers to minimise water usage.

They said: “Over the past seven months we have seen below-average rainfall and the Environment Agency have classified our region as being in a period of prolonged dry weather.

“We are continuing to experience periods of high demand for water and this means that our reservoir levels are now lower than they would normally be at this point in the year.

“We are closely monitoring and carefully managing the situation with our water resource levels and preparing for every eventuality.

“We are encouraging our customers to use water wisely and minimise usage where they can.”

The impacts of climate change have been tangible this summer, most notably with the recording of UK’s highest ever temperature.

And Environmental campaigners are have warned “we are running out of time” to act.

Leanne Dalby, a campaigner and part of Rochford pesticide-free group, said: “We should all be very worried about this, I know I am.

“I have been learning about it for a few years now, but even though I started to expect something like this, it has still come as a huge shock.

“These are the consequences people aren’t thinking about so don’t see the urgency to adapt and protect our climate.

“We will soon have more crop failure, food shortages, loss of wildlife, and further damage to eco-systems and the natural world which is vital for our own health.

“I think this will start becoming the new normal unfortunately, we are running out of time.”