WIRED: Creaking infrastructure is making the UK's hosepipe ban way worse

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But leaks are just one threat to the UK's potential drought issues. Fixing them would only put a plaster over wider problems. "It is also about the pressures that are put on our supply system, in terms of how much water we're using, how many people we have, where they live and in relation to the resources we have," says Claire Hoolohan a research fellow at the University of Manchester's Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.

Large businesses and individuals can do more to reduce their water usage. Unilever, for instance, has reduced the amount of water it uses in its factories by around 39 per cent. "There's a lot of fixation and worry about how we're going to deal with not having water and very little discussion about what are we going to do now that means we will have enough water," Hoolohan says.