Extra 30 million litres of water being pumped into River Severn daily
An extra 30 million litres of water is being pumped into the River Severn daily during the dry spell.
Roughly six million people rely on the river for drinking water, so now the Environment Agency has a team working full time to fill up its banks.
Every day during the dry spell, 400 to 700 million litres of water is added to the River Severn for people, businesses and wildlife, averaging 30 million litres more than normal.
Dave Throup, from the Environment Agency, said: "We put water out from three main resources.
"Two are reservoirs in Wales and the third is Shropshire Groundwater Scheme where water is pulled from sandstone aquifer just north of Shrewsbury.
"We put different amounts in on a daily basis.
"We're essentially balancing how much needs to go in and from which resources.
"We don't want to drain the reservoirs too quickly, but when we get a wet weekend like last weekend it pushes everything up.
"All this is to make sure enough water is going down the river to be pulled out for drinking water, as it provides water for six million people.
"We've got a full team of people who are working full time on this."
