Southeast England is another dry region in Europe, the driest part of the UK. Demand for water is increasing as more people move into the area, which is not far from Greater London. At the same time, droughts have been more frequent and the amount of water available to meet demand is declining. Water planners have had to develop schemes to close the gap between water supply and demand without extracting more water than the environment can bear. In addition to transferring river water from the northern part of the island, in 1994 the National Rivers Authority recognised the importance of recycling
wastewater effluent, and this theory was applied specifically to augmenting flow in the River Chelmer and the volume stored in the Hanningfield reservoir in Essex.