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SEPA’s first Water Scarcity Report for October highlights persistent pressures in Scotland’s north and east

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has today published its first Water Scarcity Report for October 2025, which shows that prolonged dry conditions continue to place pressure on rivers in the north and east of the country. 

Several catchments remain at significant water scarcity, the River Avon, Lower Spey, Deveron, Ythan, South Ugie Water, and Upper and Lower Don (Aberdeenshire) and Orkney. As a result, the temporary restrictions on water abstraction licences that SEPA has issued remain in place in these areas.  

Other areas, such as the rest of the Spey catchment, Findhorn, Firth of Tay, Tyne (Lothian) and Thurso, remain at moderate scarcity.  

Conditions have improved in the Esk and Angus catchments, now at early warning status, while the Ness catchment has returned to normal conditions thanks to recent rainfall. 

Scotland’s east-west rainfall split

The west of Scotland has seen far wetter conditions than the east this year, with rain this week predicted to cause surface flooding and river response. Current rainfall predictions have resulted in Regional Flood Alerts for several areas. 

While Storm Amy is forecast to bring more rain in the coming days, it is uncertain how far east the heaviest will fall and whether this will be sufficient to allow river levels to recover and for restrictions to be lifted. 

This east–west split is expected to continue, underlining the challenges of managing water resources in a changing climate.  

Water scarcity has been a persistent issue throughout 2025. The very first report of the year, published on 25th April, already placed two catchments in the far north (the Shin and the Naver) at alert status, with almost the entire rest of the country at early warning.  

On 11th September there were 17 catchments at Significant Scarcity, and while local rainfall has since eased conditions in some places the overall picture in the north and east has been one of persistent deficit. The lower Spey, for example, has recorded below-average rainfall in every single month of 2025 so far, an exceptional run that has left rivers at historically low flows for this stage in the year. 
 
Rachel Harding-Hill, Head of Water and Planning at SEPA, said: 
 
“Scotland is currently experiencing the ongoing challenge of too much water in some places and too little in others. This reflects the climate resilience challenge our country faces, managing and adapting to both flooding and water scarcity as weather patterns become more variable.

“As Scotland’s principal environmental regulator, we’re committed to helping communities and businesses adapt to those increasing risks and providing clear information and advice that enables people to make resilient choices.  

“Over the last few months, SEPA officers have spoken directly to every business and land manager affected by temporary abstraction restrictions and have been out in affected catchments to check how people are adhering to restrictions. We’ve seen really strong compliance, and the restrictions that remain will be lifted as soon as river levels have recovered to an appropriate threshold.” 

Notes to editors

Water scarcity levels

• Early Warning: Conditions are drying. No action required, but abstractors should start preparing. 
• Alert: Water levels are falling. SEPA advises voluntary reductions in non-essential water use for abstractors. 
• Moderate Scarcity: Environmental impact is clear. Action from abstractors is expected to protect rivers and the species that rely on them. 
• Significant Scarcity: Critical river levels. Restrictions on abstraction licences may be imposed.

Data sources

• SEPA Water Scarcity situation report - 2nd October 2025
• SEPA’s river level network - Find Scottish water levels information
• Rainfall data for Scotland - Scottish Rainfall Data
• DRAT - Water scarcity data - provided by Scottish Environment Protection Agency 

DRAT stations, Q95 and Significant Scarcity

Anyone can track conditions via SEPA’s Drought Risk Assessment Tool (DRAT), which shows colour-coded stations across Scotland and how close they are to Significant Scarcity.  

Clicking on an individual station will show how many days it has been below Q95, a recognised low flow threshold. When a station reaches 30 days the catchments linked to the station will be moved to Significant Scarcity, and SEPA will move to impose any restrictions required.     

DRAT is a network of flow gauging stations that SEPA monitor across Scotland and are used to set significant water scarcity when flows have been low for a sustained period of time.  

Data has been collected at these stations for a long period of time, so this allows us to give context to what is currently happening with the amount of flow in rivers relative to what you would normally expect.  

The river flow stations are each used as a representation of the conditions over an area, called a significant water scarcity area. The area and representative gauging stations are displayed on the tool. 

Each station may represent a single river or a group of catchments. For this reason, the number of DRAT stations and areas at Significant Scarcity may be different. 

Further support and useful links

The National Water Scarcity Plan explains how water resources will be managed prior to and during periods of prolonged dry weather. This is to ensure the correct balance is struck between protecting the environment and providing resource for human and economic activity. 

Report dry private water supplies and rivers and burns in your area to help SEPA assess water scarcity stress. 

All water abstractors should be aware of the risk of water scarcity, monitor their water use, and plan ahead for a range of weather conditions. Find further advice for abstractors and irrigators on our website.