From chalk streams to temperate rain forests, our irreplaceable and rare habitats need us to use less water

The way we use water is putting increasing pressure on the natural environment. If we are to protect it for future generations, we need to be saving water right now

At first glance, it seems bizarre to think that England could be running low on water. There’s our obsession with rain, for one: foreigners mock us as umbrella-sheltering, wellington-boot-wearing types who love to discuss our meteorological misfortune. Nobody is more than two hours’ drive from the coast; water has shaped our cultural identity from Walter Raleigh’s chivalric cloak-over-puddle shenanigans to the canals that crisscross our green and pleasant land.

It all suggests there’s an endless gush of H₂O for us all. Unfortunately, there isn’t. The demand for water in England – fuelled by population increases, more erratic weather and modern lifestyles – is placing growing pressure on the water sources we rely on.

An average of 14.63bn litres of water – enough to fill many thousands of big swimming pools – are abstracted from the environment in England every day, according to the Environment Agency. With the growing population and increasingly hot, dry summers (last year was the hottest on record), that figure will be under pressure to rise further, putting lakes, rivers and reservoirs under even more strain. This has given impetus to a new campaign, Let’s Save Water, which aims to encourage us to all think more carefully about how we could use less water day to day.

In 2024-25 alone, 18 areas across England faced challenges in balancing water supply and demand. And this puts our environment – rivers, lakes, and the wildlife that calls these habitats home – at risk.

One place where the damage can be clearly seen is in England’s chalk streams. These rivers are among the rarest habitats on Earth: 85% of the world’s estimated 260 chalk streams are in England. They emerge from underground “aquifers”, whose porous, sponge-like structure filters rainwater removing debris and dirt. For centuries, communities have relied on water from aquifers; today, water companies use them to provide water which they treat and supply to millions of people across England.

As we take more water than the chalk streams can sustain, wildlife habitats are struggling to cope, and the climate crisis is making things worse: during the 2019 drought, 67% of chalk streams in the Chilterns dried out, but have fortunately since started flowing again.

Anybody raised on Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows – set on a chalk stream – knows, these habitats host a panoply of wildlife. Otters, kingfishers, water voles, clouds of mayflies, white-clawed crayfish and even salmon depend on their clean, fast flowing, well-oxygenated waters.

A combination of pressures – including low water levels, pollution and sedimentation – has contributed to problems, among them declining salmon numbers. In 2024, just 187 salmon returned to the River Itchen in Hampshire to spawn: only 37% of the number needed to sustain the population.

For all their ecological indispensability, chalk streams remain largely absent from public consciousness. Even fewer people realise the UK is home to temperate rainforests too. These damp woodlands once covered 20% of the country but deforestation means they have dwindled to less than 1%, with surviving pockets found in places such as Devon and Cornwall, Gwynedd and the Lake District.

These surviving rainforests can be vulnerable, as with chalk streams, if water is extracted from areas nearby (mostly from rivers and groundwater), often altering local hydrology – reducing river flows and lowering groundwater levels. This is endangering the moisture-loving mosses, lichens, liverworts and ferns that usually flourish in temperate rainforests, including the superbly named likes of “old man’s beard”, string-of-sausages lichen and sphagnum moss (which can prevent flooding as it can absorb so much water).

Yet, in spite of the impact on the environment, many of us barely give this a thought when we flick on a tap. Household demand, it turns out, is a huge driver of abstraction. The average person in the UK uses about 136 litres a day, which makes households as a whole the biggest users of the water supplied in England and Wales (59%). With this in mind, it’s clear that population increase could significantly impact demand at a time when climate change means we may have less water available. On the positive side, it also means that if each of us makes small changes that save water, the cumulative effect can make a huge difference.

Reducing water use at home helps lower the amount taken from rivers and groundwater, which in turn helps protect the habitats that they support. There are simple things we can do that can result in each of us saving thousands of litres of water a year: shortening shower time to four minutes; turning off the tap when brushing teeth; only running washing machines and dishwashers with full loads and on eco mode. Installing water butts to harvest rainwater is a great way to avoid having to use a hosepipe, while ingenious hacks include using cooled pasta water to pour on plants. These small changes in mindset will reap big rewards when enough of us get on board.

Smart meters, which track real-time usage and cost, will also make it much easier to understand how much water you are using and what is driving up your water footprint. A big rollout is on the horizon so be ready to sign up when your water company has them available.

Water companies are also confronting the problem. By 2050, they are aiming to have reduced leaks of treated water from 19% now to 13% and to have built 10 new reservoirs. And to help customers save water, some companies are offering them water-efficient appliances such as low-flow showerheads or tap aerators for homes and businesses.

Given how critical water is to our lives and the environment, we need a mindset shift that sees us stop taking it for granted – or thinking there’s nothing we can do. The new Let’s Save Water campaign sets out to remind us how individual actions can add up to make a big difference – one that protects the country’s rare habitats and ensures nature’s tap isn’t turned off for good …

Find out more about the Let’s Save Water campaign and what you can do to make a difference