Morland Sanders looks at how our most precious resource - drinking water - is being managed and asks: Where does all our water go?

Last month United Utilities – the company responsible for supplying water in the North West of England – announced a hosepipe ban for most of its region. Yet just 10 months earlier some of these same places had been under water in devastating floods, due in part to unprecedented rainfall. So what happened to all that water?

It's not just the North West of the country that's suffering the effects of climate change and floods - in the past 5 years there has been flooding across the country from Cockermouth to Lewes, and for some floods have become a regular occurrence. This, set against the backdrop of a growing population, huge pressure on a Victorian infrastructure, and an overall increase in water consumption, is leading experts to question our ability to manage our water supply into the future, with some warning that unless we change our ways water could become a much scarcer resource.

In Tonight's programme Morland Sanders investigates the future of our water supply, asks how we can have hosepipe bans and floods, and challenges the water companies on why their leakage levels are still so high.

We also hear from the World Wildlife Fund about the environmental impact of allowing water companies to take water from our rivers and lakes at a rate of 35,000 mega litres per day. And find out more about water companies' plans for making sure we have a reliable water resource in the future, including the country's first desalination plant built by Thames Water.

Morland Sanders also meets people affected by extremes of water. At one end of the spectrum is Joan Walton who has still not been able to move back into her flat in Keswick since she was flooded out in November 2009. She now lives in a town with a hosepipe ban but fears the return of floods to her newly renovated home.

At the other end of the scale is Richard Holt who runs a canal boat business, which is under threat since the drought forced the closure of a 60 mile stretch of canal for the first time in 15 years. He has had to move his boats to Selby, and although this has not affected his customers' holiday plans, it has affected his business.

Morland also tracks down some of the three billion litres of water that the water companies leak from their system every day at Mary and Gina Cunliffe's home. They had a leak across their front path for 14 months and had to deal with an ice sheet in the winter months limiting Mary's ability to get out the house. They say the leak caused them huge amounts of stress but nobody from the water company would listen to them. The leak has been fixed since we made the programme.

Morland Sanders takes their concerns to the new Environment Minister, Richard Benyon and hears what the new government is going to do to address these issues and to make sure we have a secure water supply and always have a flow of water when we turn on our taps.

For more information please contact:

Waterwise

WWF Rivers on the Edge

Environment Agency

Ofwat

Defra

United Utilities

Southern Water

J M Yachting

Canal Boat Escapes