Organisations across Leeds and West Yorkshire are invited to take part in an online scenario exercise exploring how partners could work together during a major water supply emergency.
Recent periods of extreme heat have highlighted the pressures that prolonged hot weather can place on essential services, local infrastructure and communities.
This Partnership in Practice session will bring organisations together to explore a realistic scenario involving sustained extreme heat, critically low water reserves and the sudden failure of a water treatment system.
The session is designed to help organisations consider how they might respond, work with partners and support communities if a major disruption to the water supply occurred.
What will the session cover?
Participants will work through a developing emergency scenario and consider questions including:
- How could a major water outage affect your organisation, services and communities?
- Which people and communities may be most affected?
- How would your organisation continue to deliver essential support?
- What information and resources would organisations need?
- How could partners coordinate their response and support one another?
- What practical steps could organisations take now to improve their preparedness?
The exercise is not a test. It is an opportunity to think through potential challenges in a supportive environment, learn from different perspectives and identify practical actions that could strengthen future planning.
Learning from national expertise
The session will be introduced by Villő Lelkes, Head of Water Risks in Water Security, Risk and Resilience at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Villő will provide national context around water security and resilience, alongside practical considerations that organisations and communities can use to strengthen their planning.
Ed Jarvis, from SAFER at the Climate Majority Project, will also help explore how organisations can prepare for climate-related risks and build greater resilience within their communities.
Together, they will set the scene before participants work through the scenario and consider how different organisations and sectors could respond.
Why this matters for VCSE organisations
During emergencies, voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations often play an important role in supporting communities.
Many organisations have trusted relationships with people who may be more affected by disruption, including older people, disabled people, people with long-term health conditions, unpaid carers and communities experiencing health or financial inequalities.
A prolonged water outage could affect community venues, care and support services, food provision, health services and organisations’ ability to continue their day-to-day work.
Planning ahead can help organisations better understand potential risks, consider how services could continue and identify where stronger partnerships or additional support may be needed.
Strengthening resilience through partnership
No organisation would respond to a major disruption alone.
The session will provide an opportunity to learn from organisations working across different sectors and explore how shared planning, local knowledge and established community relationships could contribute to a coordinated response.
Participants will leave with practical insights to support future planning and a stronger understanding of how organisations could work together during a major emergency.
Event details
Partnership in Practice: Water Outage Scenario Exercise
Delivery: Online
14 July 2026 – 10:00 am
Register your place
Organisations are encouraged to consider who would be best placed to attend and contribute to discussions about service continuity, emergency planning, community support and organisational resilience.
