Anglian Water has issued a £225 million green bond to fund what it claims will be the UK’s biggest ever drought resilience project.

The green bond, priced at CAD$350 million (£230m), has been issued on the Canadian bond market, with proceeds used to support the delivery of the water company’s plans to install hundreds of kilometres of interconnecting pipes across the East and South East of England.

The pipelines will help transport water across the country to tackle drought in drier regions as large parts of the UK continue to face drought conditions following the heatwave.

The green bond on the Canadian ‘maple’ market, which allows foreign issuers to access the debt market in Canada, will specifically fund Anglian Water’s Strategic Pipeline Alliance (SPA), the biggest infrastructure programme in the water company’s history and one of the largest of its kind in the UK.

Jane Pilcher, Anglian Water’s Group Treasurer said: “The impacts of climate change are acutely impacting the water industry in the UK and the world over. Ours is the driest region in the UK and particularly vulnerable to climate change. Therefore reducing our carbon emissions and adapting to the climate emergency is embedded in everything we do.

“Spend on resilience to climate change and environmental protection is vitally important. This focus is why 100% of our debt raised in 2021/22 was sustainable finance.”