South East Water draft drought plan 2017 - consultation

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 06 September 2017 16:06

Written by Parish Clerk

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South East Water have published our draft drought plan for the period 2018 to 2023 for consultation.

Our drought plan sets out the steps we would take during periods of low rainfall to ensure we can deliver a reliable water supply for the essential needs of drinking, washing, cooking and cleaning. It details what actions we'd take to conserve water and secure customers’ supplies, while balancing the needs of the environment.

This plan is a statutory requirement and is revised every five years. We've now produced a draft drought plan 2017. The updates include changes required by new drought plan guidelines, including assessing how we would manage more severe drought events.

We submitted our draft drought plan to Defra earlier this year and it confirmed we can begin our consultation.

All our customers and stakeholders have the opportunity to have their say on all our work, including our drought plan. Using our experience from previous droughts, and research into possible future impacts, we've prepared a plan we hope will receive your support. 

Where to find the plan 

The documents included in our consultation can be viewed at southeastwater.co.uk/droughtplan. 

We've had the plan certified and it does not contain any information that would comprise national security interests. Nothing has been included or removed that is commercially confidential. 

Alongside the consultation documents, our Drought Permit Environmental Assessment Reports that support the plan, are available to view at our offices at Rocfort Road, Snodland, Kent, ME6 5AH. Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  by email to arrange an appointment if you would like to read these. 

How to give your feedback

Consultation on our draft drought plan runs from today (4 September) for six weeks, ending on 29 October.

The documents included in the consultation are the draft drought plan and associated appendices.

Please send your representations to the Secretary of State by 29 October.

This can be via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Or you can write to:

Secretary of State, Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
Drought Plan Consultation
Water Resources
Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Area 3D
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London
SW1P 3JR

Next steps

The Secretary of State will forward all comments on to us. We will review these and publish a statement of response which details any changes to the plan, this will be published on our website by 15 December and sent to everyone who joins the consultation. 

All comments will be considered and where appropriate we will make changes to the draft drought plan, giving reasons for the changes. Where we consider no changes are necessary we will explain the reasons for this. 

The Secretary of State will consider the comments raised and our response to the comments made on the draft drought plan. We hope at this point the final plan will be able to be adopted and published in 2018. 

Thank you for taking the time to input into our consultation. 

Although we're consulting specifically on the drought plan during this time, we continuously talk to customers and stakeholders about our work and hope you will continue to give us your feedback and how we can work together to ensure we have a resilient water supply for everyone now and in the future.

Lee Dance

Head of Water Resources
Water Resources

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / www.southeastwater.co.uk

South East Water, Rocfort Road, Snodland, Kent, ME6 5AH