The reservoir, on the Elveden Estate in Suffolk, was built with the help of a £500,000 government grant in October to protect vegetable and cereal crops during dry periods. It has the capacity to store up to 500,000 cubic metres of water – enough to fill 200 Olympic-sized swimming pools – but has now run almost completely dry. Advertisement AdvertisementAdvertisement AdvertisementAndrew Blenkiron, the managing director of the Elveden Estate, said it was "going to be tight" to support 10,000 acres of farmland on the estate. That being said, one of the reasons for this new reservoir was to be able to cope with these incredibly long, hot, dry summers. "This is the third year out of five we've experienced these conditions and the big danger is that, if we have a dry winter, we've got some really serious problems next year."