Rainfall and resources

Current levels

Groundwater levels – 1.23m below LTA

Bough Beech Reservoir level – 64.9% full

The current outlook

According to the Met Office, England has recorded only 34% of its average summer rainfall, reflecting the dry weather of recent weeks. Some locations have yet to record any significant rainfall through June and July.

These recent dry conditions have placed increasing pressure on water resources across the South East. However, the groundwater sources from which SES Water obtains around 85% of its supply are in a good position after the wet winter recharged them to healthy levels. Because of this we haven’t needed to use Bough Beech Reservoir, which normally provides around 15% of the overall supply, too much and its level remains around normal for the time of year. As a result, SES Water's resources remain in a relatively healthy position and there are currently no plans to introduce a hosepipe ban.

We ask that customers use water wisely. Every Drop Counts. Small actions. A big difference. Find out more about ways to save water.

Current resources level

How we source our water

Our water primarily comes from groundwater sources, which recharge over the winter and spring when there is less plant growth and evaporation. The remaining 15% comes from Bough Beech reservoir. This water resource is abstracted from the River Eden, usually between October and March and then stored in the reservoir to be used throughout the year.

We usually supply 160 million litres of water every day and we have seen this rise to 200 million litres on some days. 

Working across the industry, our stakeholders (such as the Environment Agency and Natural England) are prompting us all to understand that the environment is especially vulnerable to prolonged dry weather. This highlights that our work to reduce demand (and therefore abstraction) together with supporting resilient catchments is vital as we plan for the future. 

Whilst we continue to reduce our leakage to its lowest ever levels, it’s also important for everyone to be conscious of how much water they use and how they can be more efficient.   

We have a wealth of tips and information on saving water, as well as tools to help our customers reduce their bill and to order free water saving devices.

Raw data spreadsheet (updated monthly)

To download, please click on the spreadsheet document. This is a ZIP format file containing the full set of all available data in a multi-sheet Excel format spreadsheet. This data is updated monthly.