The water industry is responding poorly to climatic events, but aggrieved customers should stop complaining and "learn to adapt to the results of climate change", according to research from Reading University. Michael Price, senior lecturer in hydrogeology, said the water industry should not stick rigidly to statistics in planning for climate change. In the past 25 years, Britain has had four droughts so severe that they would be expected only once every 200 years, he said.