Millions of people are at risk of being left without adequate supplies of drinking water due to poor infrastructure or cyber attack, according to the government’s own assessment of national risk.
Britain’s drinking water supply has been officially rated a “catastrophic” national risk on a par with a pandemic, according to the government’s own National Risk Register.
The 2026 register, which was published earlier this week, shows the risk of “water infrastructure failure or loss of drinking water” has jumped from the bottom of the government’s risk matrix last year to the top of the danger zone this year – the category reserved for the gravest threats facing the country.
Shorts
The likelihood of a catastrophic impact on supply is now assessed at up to one in four.
