Suffolk reservoir runs out of water as farmer describes ‘incredibly testing’ year

The reservoir has run almost completely dry amid a hot, dry summer

A new £3 million reservoir which can hold 200 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water has nearly run out less than a year after being built. The basin on the 22,500-acre Elveden Estate, in Suffolk, was built in October last year to protect its large vegetable and cereal operation during dry periods.

But the reservoir has almost run completely dry, despite storing up to 500,000 cubic metres of water. Managing director of Elveden Estate, Andrew Blenkiron, said it was “going to be tight” to support 10,000 acres of farmland.

He said: “This year has been incredibly testing. We’re used to dealing with a lack of water and whatever Mother Nature throws at us. That being said, one of the reasons for this new reservoir was to be able to cope with these incredibly long, hot, dry summers.

“This is the third year out of five we’ve experienced these conditions and the big danger is if we have a dry winter, we’ve got some really serious problems next year.”

The Elveden Estate is described as the largest ring-fenced arable farm in lowland Britain. It has felt the full impact of the drought and heatwaves. The estate finished its cereal harvest in July and winter barley was 30 per cent down on average.

The estate, which primarily produces onions, and potatoes and carrots for McDonald’s, has only seen a few millimetres of rainfall in recent months. The site is home to three reservoirs but the other two are down to their last 15 per cent of capacity and the estate is relying on their groundwater boreholes.

Mr Blenkiron added: “Those people who have put so much effort into irrigating crops deserve medals. It’s been flat out here for almost four months now, with only a couple of days off from watering in early June.

“It really is going to take a lot of rain to make any significant difference. People say we can import food from around the world but because of the El Nino event, we could see impact on crops across the globe in future.”

The £3m reservoir is filled with water from the River Lark during the winter months. The Environment Agency announced last month half of England was officially in drought, with July set to be the driest on record.