Satellite images reveal scale of reservoirs' decline

New satellite images reveal the scale of reservoirs' reduction across the south-west of England.

Wimbleball Lake on Exmoor in Somerset, which provides drinking water to about 400,000 people in Devon, was full in March 2026 but by October reached as low as 13% of capacity, and was named by the Environment Agency as "exceptionally low".

An old Victorian bridge underneath Wimbleball Lake has even resurfaced due to prolonged dry weather as a severe drought has been declared in the area.

A new reservoir is being built in Cheddar, but it could take almost a decade for it to come into use, with experts warning people's water usage has to change in the short term.

Hannah Cloke, a professor of meteorology at the University of Reading, said storing water is a "really difficult problem", adding building reservoirs is a challenge due to cost and land use.

"We're using so much water and we have a lot of people to get water to... so it's a problem that's becoming worse because of climate change," she added.

Cloke said water consumption needs to be looked at more broadly, a sentiment echoed by Nicci Russell, the boss of charity Water Wise, who said: "We're actually all using double per person on average than we used to 50 years ago and... water often isn't there when we need it.

"It's absolutely essential that all of us at home and at work are wasting less water so we can bring that water use right down."

It has been 30 years since a new reservoir was built in the UK, but the government has now pledged to build nine proposed reservoirs across England by 2050.

One of those is Cheddar 2 Reservoir in Somerset where South West Water chiefs have said it should have the capacity to supply 20 million litres of water to the region - but may not come into use until 2035.

Cheddar Reservoir supplies North Somerset and Bristol, is managed by Bristol Water and is currently at 31%, leaving much of the eastern side bare.

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