In July 2007, Gloucestershire experienced the worst floods on record. Bottled water came to the rescue again after drinking water supplies had become contaminated, as it had done for earlier floods in many parts of the UK and Northern Ireland throughout June and July.  

The bottled water industry provides clean drinking water when it’s needed most, in the aftermath of natural disasters. When drinking water supplies have been disrupted, the local authorities often turn to bottled water companies outside of the affected area to bring in supplies, not only stopping people from becoming dehydrated, but also lowering the risk of a serious outbreak of disease if people turn to infected drinking water supplies.  

Bottled water emergency relief is only possible where there is a thriving bottled water industry, with enough capacity in the system to be able to handle the massive demands made of it during the relief effort.  

UK 2007 relief  

Bottled water companies provided an estimated 55 million litres of water for flood relief in July 2007, with Severn Trent making available 50 million litres. Lack of access to clean water was a major issue during the floods of 2007, notably in the Gloucester region. 420,000 people were without drinking water, including most of the population of Gloucester, Cheltenham, and Tewkesbury. Visiting Gloucestershire on 25 July, Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised more bottled water would be provided.  

Significant volume shipments were made to Gloucestershire in the second half of July. The shipments were so pronounced that for some operators, sales in the last week of July 2007 were on a par with those in the corresponding week in July 2006, with July 2006 of course boosted by the hot weather boom. Although, as the flood relief water was donated to consumers, retail value sales were not boosted by these summer shipments.  

Local authorities purchased the majority of flood relief water during this frantic time in July. Here, a range of distribution routes were used: from initial supermarket stocks, through to cash and carries, food service distributors and then direct purchase by the utilities from a number of UK bottled water operators. So, it is clear that bottled water provided valuable relief at a time of need.