"If heatwaves are climate change's rapid and deadly invading force, droughts are its slow but devastating undercover agents," says India Burke The New Statesman. Last month England had its hottest day on record. It was also her driest July since 1935. An official drought declaration was also predicted to be imminent as a new heat wave broke out this week. The river is "dangerously low". Farmers are worried about the recurrence of the 1976 drought. At this time crops failed and food prices rose by 12%. Also, an increasing number of water companies have introduced or are planning to ban hose pipes. Wait for more brown lawns and empty pools.
I am confused,said David Frost in The Daily Telegraph. Surely the solution is to fix supply, so why are consumers being urged to reduce demand? Data from the Bureau of Meteorology show that there is plenty of water. If anything, it's raining in the UK. The problem is timing. It rains more in winter, but less in summer. and Regions - The South of England is drier. Investments in storage, distribution and conversion facilities could overcome these issues. But the last time he built a reservoir was 30 years ago, and the Thames desalination plant in east London (which turns salt water into fresh water) is not operational.
Water companies have a lot of work to do, says The Times. Customer bills have skyrocketed since privatization, but instead of investing in infrastructure and fixing pipes (a whopping 20% of the UK's water supply is lost to leaks), the sector is asking private shareholders to pay him. has paid off £72bn and has £56bn of debt. Balance sheet.
Companies will need clearer direction from governments to change their behavior, India Burke said. The Directives they are currently targeting are inconsistent. It is said that we need to reduce water extraction from rivers for conservation and reduce our carbon footprint. But at the same time, we are being told to build new reservoirs and other infrastructure projects that consume large amounts of energy. We consumers need more direction, too. For example, installing vent plugs to improve efficiency or using cigarette butts to collect rainwater for use in the garden.
But focusing solely on domestic protection and provision is short-sighted, Donachad McCarthy said in The Independent. We also need to look at water consumption by energy producers. Energy production accounts for 44% of water use in Europe. A switch to renewable energy would improve this, but the government plans to build up to eight new 'water-hungry' nuclear power plants, including only one, Sizewell C. It requires 2 million liters of potable water per day to run. But it's in Suffolk, one of the driest regions in the country, and no one seems to have figured out where this water comes from. As water supplies become 'increasingly stressed' and Britain becomes more and more droughty, we must all start changing our long-term thinking.
