We are responding to the recent emphasis on water resource planning which requires water companies in England to plan for drought levels of severity above between 1 in 200 to and 1 in 500 years events. Our EDRS proposition offers an alternative to creating permanent access to stressed local water resources and to building additional infrastructure such as reservoirs and desalination plants to cope with such expectedly rare events. EDRS reserves potable water from sustainable sources (e.g. in Norway) and deploys a robust supply arrangement to ship water to designated ports in UK in times of extreme drought. The Service is supported by an innovative drought insurance product designed to meet the major cost of transportation when triggered, with costs covered by an annual subscription from participating water companies. Our current analysis indicates that this annual cost will provide better value for money, better environmental performance and a higher level of resilience compared to many conventional solutions.