12-07-2025
Farmers' fury over ban on watering crops
Farmers have been banned from watering their crops during the heatwave.
Growers in East Anglia are facing an 'abstraction ban', which prevents them from irrigating crops despite no other water restrictions being imposed in the area.
The move comes amid the country's third heatwave of the summer, which has left reservoir levels in England at their lowest levels in a decade.
Hosepipe bans in Yorkshire and the South East have already been introduced, with millions of customers given a week's notice before restrictions come into force.
However, the ban on crop irrigation in parts of Norfolk was implemented without warning, fuelling anger amongst farmers concerned about the impact on their harvests.
Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers' Union (NFU), said such bans would be 'risking food production', particularly in East Anglia where many farms are based.
He said: 'Abstraction bans have already been implemented in Norfolk with no prior engagement or warning. It seems ridiculous when there is no official drought or hosepipe ban.'
Farmers have warned the ban, imposed by the Environment Agency on around 240 growers in the Ely Ouse catchment from July 3, threatens significant crop losses.
Tim Young, who grows onions, sugar beet, wheat and rye on his 182-hectare Grange Farm, near Thetford, said: 'An abstraction ban imposed by the Environment Agency (EA) means a huge knock to our profitability and the country's food security whilst gardens and grass keep getting water to look nice.'
He added: 'I thought the EA would reduce abstraction to four nights a week. It was a shock to have a complete ban, especially with no warning.
'Normally, the EA works with farmers and the NFU to give some heads-up. This came out of the blue.'
Mr Young said that he is particularly concerned about his onion crop, which depends heavily on irrigation to prevent fusarium disease which leads to wilting and root rot and decay.
'I stand in front of what's probably the best crop I've grown, and to know it might just break even is devastating,' he said. 'We managed by spreading abstraction across more days, but now with a complete ban, the risk is very real. If the Government is serious about food security, reservoirs need to be built.'
The ban is until further notice, with the Environment Agency saying it will be reviewed on a daily basis.
Abstraction bans, known as Section 57 restrictions, are imposed by the Environment Agency during times when severe drought coincides with irrigation periods.
Section 57 was widely used in the early 1990s in parts of the East of England and again in 2006, but has rarely been invoked in the last decade.
Prosecutions for defying such orders are rare. But in 2020 a Cambridgeshire farm was ordered to pay nearly £8,000 for illegally abstracting water for its potato crop.
Dennis (Haddenham) Limited, based at Willow Farm Hall, Ely, abstracted water when restrictions were in place following months of extremely dry weather in 2018.
The firm repeated the offence less than a year later – despite knowing they were already under investigation.
Farmers are allowed to extract water from a natural source, like a river or groundwater, if they are granted an abstraction licence by the Environment Agency. However, breaching these licences can also lead to fines.
A Norfolk farmer was fined last year for taking more water than allowed by his abstraction licence, including during a summer drought.
Brian Rutterford, 77, of Undley, Lakenheath, was ordered to pay £4,300 by magistrates after pleading guilty to taking three times the amount of water he was allowed to from a small channel next to his farm in Hockwold-cum-Wilton.
The farmer had continued to take water during the record-breaking hot summer of 2022, when East Anglia was officially in drought and many local water courses were dry.
The Environment Agency said Rutterford's actions had affected water supplies for the local community.
NFU vice-president Rachel Hallos called for more flexible abstraction rules to help maintain food production as well as long-term investment in water resilience, including rainwater harvesting.
'To support a secure and sustainable food supply, it's essential that farmers and growers have the right tools to manage the weather extremes we are seeing more often,' she said.
Farmers have already been hit by Labour's inheritance tax raid, under which assets above £1 million will be subject to a 20 per cent charge.
While fines on farmers for breaching abstraction bans can be severe, the majority of water companies have never prosecuted any householders for breaching a hosepipe ban.
While customers could theoretically be prosecuted and fined up to £1,000, most firms prefer to rely on the fear that neighbours will report them for continuing to use a hose, as well as educating and persuading customers to consume less water.
Yorkshire Water has introduced restrictions this week after the region recorded its driest spring in 132 years. South East Water also announced a hosepipe ban for more than one million people in Kent and Sussex on Friday.
Water companies are understood to be reluctant to implement hosepipe bans because it affects customer satisfaction ratings, with the firms said by industry sources to be waiting 'until the very last moment' to put bans in place.
Meanwhile families are facing higher water bills during heatwaves as part of surge pricing trials for customers with smart water meters at 15 firms.
Ofwat, the industry regulator, said that the trials, planned for the next five years, would increase prices 'when water is scarce' and could potentially be extended to all customers.
Latest figures show that reservoirs across the country were 76 per cent full in June. This was below their level in the severe drought year of 2022, when they were at 77 per cent capacity at this time in the summer.
Dr Jess Neumann, an associate professor in hydrology at the University of Reading, said: 'Water companies need to be proactive. Hosepipe bans can save three to seven per cent of daily water use as long as the public are onboard with the need to conserve water. Hosepipe bans have the additional advantage of increasing awareness of water scarcity and stress amongst communities, further encouraging mindful water use.'
The prolonged dry spring and summer, along with the current hot weather driving up water use by consumers, has led to reservoir levels in the Midlands and the North to fall dramatically.
Last year the Government and water companies announced proposals to build nine new reservoirs by 2050. No major reservoirs have been completed in England since 1992, shortly after the water sector was privatised.
A Water UK spokesman said: 'Water companies do everything possible to avoid restrictions on customers, including by moving water around their region and surging activity on leakage. However, when government-mandated trigger levels are reached then unfortunately a temporary use ban needs to be imposed.'
A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesman said: 'Rapid population growth, crumbling infrastructure and a warming climate mean without urgent action, Britain could run out of drinking water. We have taken swift and decisive action to secure £104 billion of private sector investment to build nine reservoirs and new pipes to cut leaks.'
