River water can be used to tackle shortages – ruling

Yorkshire Water has been granted permission to extract water from two rivers to tackle the ongoing shortages.

- by Charles Brown

The Environment Agency approved two drought permits - for the River Wharfe and River Ouse - to protect drinking water supplies.

The orders will apply for six months and allow for an additional 60,000 cubic metres of water per day to be extracted from the Ouse and for the Wharfe to top up the Grimwith reservoir.

It comes after reservoir stocks dropped to 42 per cent, well below the normal average of 75 per cent for this time of year.