Chris Falconer, Chief Commercial Officer at Water Direct, takes a look at what he calls “the most ignored threat in continuity planning” and shares insights from the frontlines - from schools and care homes to factories - where water outages hit hard, and often, there’s no contingency plan at all.

In 2025, water continues to be one of the most under-recognised risks in business continuity planning, despite its essential role in operations across all sectors.

At Water Direct, we’ve worked with thousands of organisations during unplanned water supply interruptions, from isolated incidents to wider regional disruptions. Yet it remains common to encounter businesses and essential services that are unaware of their responsibilities — or the need to plan — in the event of a supply disruption.

A sector under pressure

The final report of the Independent Water Commission, published on 21 July 2025 and chaired by Sir Jon Cunliffe, provides a timely and comprehensive review of the challenges facing the UK water sector. It offers a detailed case for reform, with a renewed focus on resilience, long-term planning, and customer protection.

Several of the report’s findings are particularly relevant for non-household water users:

• Increasing non-domestic demand, driven by industrial use and population growth
• Escalating climate impacts, with both prolonged dry periods and more frequent intense rainfall events
• Insufficient contingency planning across critical sectors such as healthcare, education, and food production
• Greater regulatory scrutiny and higher expectations around organisational preparedness

These pressures are not theoretical - they are already affecting operations and requiring more robust planning across the board.

The reality on the ground

Throughout 2025, Water Direct has experienced sustained high demand for emergency support. While we are committed to delivering rapid response wherever needed, a concerning number of deployments continue to be reactive - often involving sites without a continuity strategy in place.

We regularly support organisations that have no water resilience measures at all. These include schools, care providers, manufacturing sites, and public infrastructure. In many cases, it is only during an outage that responsibilities around internal supply and risk management come into focus.

Even when we’re brought in to support, the absence of a clear contingency plan for water supply interruptions can present a range of practical challenges:

• We may not know the site access routes
• There may be no pre-authorised delivery location
• Tanker-compatible infrastructure might be missing altogether
• Procurement authorisation processes may delay response
• Critical operations may be halted, risking safety, reputation, and compliance

Making water continuity a standard consideration

Water is not just an operational input. It’s a fundamental enabler of health, safety, reputation, and business continuity.

The Cunliffe Report serves as a clear reminder that resilience must become a shared responsibility - not only for utilities and regulators, but also for water users across sectors.

With climate uncertainty, ageing infrastructure, and increasing demand all contributing to a more volatile risk landscape, continuity of water supply should now be viewed as a standard component of business continuity planning.

If you’re unsure about your level of risk or would like to explore contingency options for your organisation, we’re here to help.

To learn more about how Water Direct supports resilience planning across sectors, or to discuss your organisation’s needs, please feel free to get in touch.