Is the Drought Changing Your Tap Water — and Your Skin?

After one of England's driest summers in years, an understandable question has started appearing alongside the hosepipe bans: has something changed in the water coming out of the tap?

For some people, that question is about taste or smell. For others, it's their skin — feeling drier, tighter or itchier, or eczema suddenly becoming more difficult to control.

There is a plausible reason to ask. During drought, water companies can change how they manage supplies, blend different sources and, with the necessary permissions, draw water from sources they wouldn't normally use. The characteristics of your tap water can therefore change.

But that is very different from saying the drought has made mains water unsafe, or that it is causing skin disease. The evidence points somewhere more interesting.

TL;DR

• England is experiencing a genuine water-supply drought. At the beginning of September, ten Environment Agency areas remained in drought and national reservoir storage had fallen to 58%, around 19 percentage points below the seasonal average.
• Drought can change how your water is supplied. Water companies can alter source mixes and, under drought permits or orders, may be allowed to take water from additional sources.
• That can change some characteristics of tap water. The Drinking Water Inspectorate specifically requires companies to consider hardness, water chemistry, taste, odour and disinfection when sources are changed or blended.
• It doesn't mean drinking-water standards have been relaxed. New or altered sources must be risk-assessed and treated so that the water supplied remains wholesome.
• There is no evidence that England's 2026 drought has caused a general deterioration in treated mains-water quality. Environmental water quality in rivers and other raw-water sources has been affected in places, but that is not the same thing as the treated water supplied to homes.
• Hard water does have a credible connection with skin. A systematic review found children living in harder-water areas had 28% higher odds of eczema, although the certainty of that evidence was rated very low.
• There is also a plausible mechanism. Experimental studies suggest hard water can increase the amount of detergent surfactant left on skin after washing, potentially increasing irritation and disturbing the skin barrier.
• But buying a water softener isn't an evidence-based eczema treatment. A randomised trial involving 336 children found no improvement in objectively measured eczema from installing one.
• Heat, sweating, more frequent washing and soaps may be equally or more important explanations for summer skin flares. So a change in your skin during drought doesn't necessarily mean the water caused it.

England Really Is Short of Water

This isn't simply a summer with unusually brown lawns.

By early September, ten Environment Agency areas remained officially in drought. National reservoir storage had fallen to 58%, around 19 percentage points below the long-term average for the time of year, and 11 reservoirs were less than half full.

Temporary-use bans remained in force across large parts of England, including the whole or parts of the areas supplied by Thames Water, Anglian Water, Bristol Water, South East Water, Wessex Water, South West Water, Affinity Water and others.

There has been some recent rain, but it hasn't reversed the underlying shortage. Groundwater remains depleted and many reservoirs need substantial autumn and winter rainfall to recover. So pressure on the water system is real. The question is what happens between a depleted reservoir or river and your bathroom tap.

Can Drought Actually Change Your Tap Water?

Potentially, yes. This is where the simple reassurance that "drought only affects how much water there is" becomes misleading.

Water companies normally draw water from combinations of reservoirs, rivers and underground aquifers according to established operating arrangements. During severe dry weather, those arrangements can change. The Drinking Water Inspectorate says drought permits and drought orders can allow water companies to maintain public supplies by, among other measures, taking water from new sources. Companies can also change the proportion of water coming from different existing sources.

That matters because water isn't chemically identical everywhere. Groundwater that has travelled through chalk may contain substantially more dissolved calcium and magnesium than surface water from another catchment. Different raw-water sources can have different organic matter, mineral composition, pH and treatment requirements.

The DWI's guidance is explicit about this. When a water company introduces a new source or alters the blend of an existing supply, it must consider potential effects on water chemistry, hardness, taste and odour, and the effectiveness of disinfection.

So if your tap water seems slightly different during a drought, it isn't inherently implausible. What doesn't follow is that it has become unsafe.

Raw Water and Tap Water Are Not the Same Thing

This distinction matters enormously during drought.

The Environment Agency has documented deteriorating water quality in some rivers during the 2026 dry weather, alongside algal blooms, low flows and fish deaths. That sounds alarming if interpreted as a description of drinking water. It isn't.

Those reports concern the environmental and raw-water system. Water entering a treatment works is treated before it enters the public drinking-water network. Low river flows can make treatment more challenging — lower volumes of water can concentrate contaminants or organic material, while higher temperatures can encourage biological activity. Treatment therefore has to respond to the characteristics of the incoming water.

But the regulatory standard for the water leaving the process doesn't simply become less strict because there is a drought. The Drinking Water Inspectorate requires companies to risk-assess changes in sources and treatment and to manage them so that consumers continue to receive wholesome water.

The latest complete national figures provide some context. In 2025, 99.97% of regulatory samples from public water supplies in England met the required standards. That doesn't prove every glass of water during the 2026 drought is chemically identical to the water supplied last winter. It means we should distinguish changes in water characteristics from deterioration in drinking-water safety.

Could Your Water Have Become Harder?

This is one of the more plausible changes.

Water hardness mainly reflects dissolved calcium and magnesium picked up as water moves through rock. It's conventionally expressed as milligrams per litre of calcium carbonate. That is why water is naturally much harder in some areas than others.

Hardness itself isn't regarded as a drinking-water health hazard. UK drinking-water regulations don't specify a health-based standard for hardness, calcium or magnesium. But the hardness delivered to one property isn't necessarily permanently fixed. If a water company changes the proportion of groundwater and surface water entering a supply zone, or blends water from different sources during drought, the mineral composition — including hardness — can potentially change. Indeed, hardness is one of the characteristics the DWI specifically tells companies to consider when changing or blending sources.

That doesn't mean the 2026 drought has made everyone's water harder. In some areas nothing meaningful may have changed; elsewhere a different source mix could theoretically make water harder or softer. If you've noticed substantially more or less limescale than usual, therefore, it is reasonable to check the current water-quality information from your supplier rather than assuming your water has always been exactly the same.

And this is where the skin question becomes more interesting.

Hard Water and Eczema Really Are Connected — But We Don't Know Exactly How

The relationship between hard water and eczema has been studied for decades.

A 2021 systematic review and meta-analysis examined 16 studies of water hardness, eczema and skin-barrier function. When researchers pooled seven observational studies involving 385,901 participants, children exposed to harder water had 28% higher odds of atopic eczema than those exposed to softer water.

That sounds convincing. There is an important qualification: the researchers rated the certainty of that evidence very low. Observational studies can identify that two things occur together without proving that one caused the other. Hard- and soft-water regions may differ in numerous ways besides their water.

Adult evidence is similarly intriguing but inconclusive. A UK Biobank study found domestic water above 200 mg/L calcium carbonate was associated with higher odds of existing eczema among adults aged 40–69. But it did not establish a clear association with developing new eczema during follow-up.

So the fairest conclusion isn't that hard water "causes eczema". It's that hard water has repeatedly been associated with eczema, particularly in children, but causation remains uncertain. Eczema is influenced by many factors at once — including, as emerging research on the gut–skin axis suggests, what happens well beyond the skin itself.

There Is, However, a Plausible Skin Mechanism

Hard water behaves differently when you wash with it.

One of the most interesting experimental findings concerns surfactants — the cleaning ingredients in soaps, shower gels and shampoos. Studies included in the systematic review found greater deposition of sodium lauryl sulphate, a common experimental model surfactant, on skin washed in harder water. In experimental work involving adults with and without atopic eczema, hard water increased surfactant deposits on the skin and was associated with greater irritation and disruption of skin-barrier function.

This provides a plausible explanation for something many people in hard-water areas recognise: the interaction between the water and what you're washing with may matter more than the water alone. Skin affected by eczema already has an impaired barrier. Leaving more irritating surfactant behind after washing could therefore plausibly make symptoms worse.

That still doesn't prove that a drought-related change in water hardness is responsible for someone's current flare. But it means the idea isn't scientifically absurd either.

What About Chlorine?

Chlorine tends to get blamed whenever tap water suddenly smells different.

UK water companies disinfect drinking water and maintain a small residual concentration as it travels through the distribution network. The DWI says companies typically keep free or combined residual chlorine at 0.5 mg/L or below, although levels can vary within the network and may temporarily be higher during maintenance work. The World Health Organization's health-based guideline value is 5 mg/L — substantially above normal UK concentrations.

So smelling chlorine doesn't mean the water is unsafe. It also isn't surprising that the smell can vary. The amount and form of chlorine differ between supplies, and properties closer to treatment works can receive water with a somewhat higher residual concentration than those further along the network.

If drought causes a company to alter sources or network operation, treatment requirements can also change. But I found no evidence that water companies across England are simply adding unusually high concentrations of chlorine to tap water because of the 2026 drought. Nor is there strong evidence that ordinary variations in correctly treated UK mains water are causing widespread eczema.

Very highly chlorinated water can irritate skin, and NHS guidance recognises heavily chlorinated water as a potential irritant in contact dermatitis. That shouldn't be confused with evidence that normal drinking-water chlorination is causing skin disease. If your tap water suddenly develops a strong persistent chlorine or TCP-like smell, the DWI's advice is to contact your water company.

So Why Might Your Skin Be Worse This Summer?

This is where water can become an attractive explanation for several things happening at once.

Eczema is a fluctuating condition. The NHS lists heat and changes in temperature among factors that can make atopic eczema worse. Soap and washing detergent are established irritants too.

During a hot, dry summer you may sweat more. You may shower more often. You may swim more frequently. You may wash sunscreen, sweat and chlorine from your skin repeatedly. Air-conditioned environments can feel drying, while heat itself can increase itching — the same mechanism behind prickly heat. That combination can increase the number of times an already vulnerable skin barrier encounters water, cleanser and detergent.

Someone may therefore genuinely experience worse skin during the drought without the drought having contaminated their water. There may also be several effects operating simultaneously: hot weather makes eczema worse, more frequent washing increases irritant exposure, and hard water may leave more surfactant on the skin. That is considerably more plausible than a single explanation involving "bad tap water".

Should You Buy a Water Softener?

This is where an apparently convincing theory runs into a very good experiment.

The Softened Water Eczema Trial, or SWET, enrolled 336 children aged between six months and 16 years with moderate-to-severe eczema, all living in hard-water areas in England. Half received an ion-exchange water softener in their home alongside their usual eczema treatment. The others continued usual treatment. Crucially, the nurses assessing the children's skin didn't know which homes had softeners.

After 12 weeks, eczema severity had improved by 20% in the softener group and 22% in the usual-care group. There was no statistically significant difference.

Parents who knew their homes contained softeners did report some improvements, but the researchers considered these subjective differences likely to reflect response bias because treatment allocation couldn't be hidden from families.

The conclusion was straightforward: domestic ion-exchange water softeners didn't improve objectively measured established childhood eczema. That doesn't prove water hardness is irrelevant to skin. It demonstrates an important distinction — something can contribute to the development or irritation of a condition without removing that exposure subsequently being an effective treatment for established disease.

Research into whether softening water from birth could prevent eczema in high-risk babies has produced interesting preliminary results, but not yet evidence strong enough to recommend installing a softener for that purpose.

How to Find Out Whether Your Own Water Has Changed

If your skin changed at roughly the same time your tap water seemed different, you don't have to guess.

Your water company can provide information about your local supply, including measures such as hardness and residual chlorine. Suppliers also publish water-quality information by supply area or postcode.

If you're seeing much more limescale, noticing a persistent new taste or smell, or have experienced an obvious change in the appearance of your water, contact the supplier and ask whether the source or blend supplying your area has changed. That is more useful than assuming every change during a drought must be caused by drought.

A strong or persistent chlorine or TCP-like smell, discolouration or another significant unexplained change should also be reported to the water company rather than treated as a normal consequence of water restrictions.

What to Do If Your Skin Is Reacting

If you're experiencing dry or eczema-prone skin, the evidence doesn't support buying an expensive household water softener specifically as an eczema treatment. There are simpler things to address first.

The NHS recommends regular use of emollients for atopic eczema and avoiding known irritants such as soap and some detergents. Washing with an appropriate emollient or soap substitute may help people whose skin is irritated by conventional cleansers. Keep showers and baths comfortably warm rather than hot. Avoid aggressively scrubbing the skin and pat rather than rub it dry.

Given that one plausible hard-water mechanism involves increased surfactant deposition, reducing exposure to irritating soaps and detergents makes more sense than assuming the water itself must be removed from the equation.

And if eczema is persistent, worsening, painful, weeping, crusted or otherwise difficult to control, it deserves proper assessment rather than increasingly elaborate experiments with the household plumbing.

What This Actually Means

Yes, drought can change aspects of your tap water. Water companies may change source mixes and, under drought measures, can gain access to additional sources. Different sources can have different mineral and chemical characteristics.

No, that doesn't mean the drought has made mains water generally unsafe. Raw-water quality can deteriorate during drought, but treatment and regulatory requirements remain in place before that water reaches consumers.

Your water could theoretically become harder or softer if the source mix changes. Hardness is primarily determined by geology, but the water supplied to your home can change when different sources are blended.

Hard water has a credible relationship with skin. It is associated with eczema in observational studies and can increase surfactant deposition and skin-barrier irritation experimentally. That is not the same as proving it causes eczema.

Chlorine is a less convincing explanation at normal drinking-water concentrations. Levels can vary, but there is no evidence of a general drought-driven increase causing skin disease across England.

And summer itself matters. Heat, sweating, repeated showering, soaps, swimming and other environmental changes can all aggravate susceptible skin — which is also why staying cool in hot weather matters for more than comfort alone.

So if both your water and your skin seem different this summer, the observation may be worth investigating. It just isn't evidence, by itself, that one caused the other.

Frequently Asked Questions

Has the 2026 drought changed tap water in England?

It can change how water is sourced and managed. Water companies may alter the balance between reservoirs, rivers and groundwater or use additional sources under drought arrangements. That can change characteristics such as hardness, taste or odour in some supply zones. It doesn't mean all tap water has changed.

Has the drought made tap water unsafe?

There is no evidence of a general deterioration in the safety of treated mains water because of the 2026 drought. Raw rivers and other environmental waters have experienced drought-related quality problems in places, but drinking water is treated and regulated before reaching homes.

Can drought make my water harder?

Potentially, indirectly. Drought itself doesn't add calcium to water, but a change in the source or blend supplying your area could alter hardness because different water sources have different mineral compositions.

Can hard water cause eczema?

Hard water has repeatedly been associated with eczema, particularly in children, and experimental research provides a plausible skin-barrier mechanism. But observational associations don't prove that hard water causes eczema, and the overall certainty of the epidemiological evidence remains low.

Can chlorine in tap water irritate skin?

Heavily chlorinated water can be irritating to susceptible skin, but normal UK drinking-water chlorine levels are low. There isn't good evidence that ordinary fluctuations in mains-water chlorine are causing widespread eczema during the current drought.

Would a shower filter help?

There isn't good clinical evidence that a conventional shower filter treats eczema. Filters also vary considerably in what they actually remove, and most don't soften genuinely hard water because removing calcium and magnesium requires a different process.

Should I install a water softener for eczema?

Not on the basis of current evidence. A large randomised trial found that ion-exchange water softeners didn't improve objectively measured eczema in children who already had the condition.

How can I check whether my tap water has changed?

Check your water company's local water-quality information or contact it directly. If you've noticed a persistent new taste, smell, colour or other significant change, report it rather than assuming drought is responsible.

The Bottom Line

The drought has changed England's water system. Reservoirs are depleted, groundwater remains low, millions of people have faced restrictions and water companies are using drought plans to keep public supplies running. That can include changing where water comes from.

And because water from different sources isn't chemically identical, some households could experience changes in characteristics such as hardness, taste or smell even though the water continues to meet drinking-water standards.

The leap from there to "the drought is causing my skin condition" is much harder to make. Hard water is associated with eczema and there is credible experimental evidence that it interacts with detergents in ways that can impair an already vulnerable skin barrier. Yet the best randomised trial found that removing hardness didn't improve established childhood eczema.

Meanwhile, heat, sweat, repeated washing and exposure to soaps and detergents are all established ways of aggravating susceptible skin.

So if your skin has changed during the drought, don't dismiss what you've noticed. But don't assume that a hosepipe ban means something harmful has appeared in your tap water either. First establish whether your local supply has actually changed. Then deal with the skin barrier rather than the drought headline.

If you want a calmer, structured way to work on the everyday habits that support skin, sleep and stress, The Reset Programme and Reset Companion are designed to be used together.

This is general information rather than medical advice. If you have persistent or worsening eczema or another unexplained skin condition, speak to your GP, pharmacist or another qualified healthcare professional.

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