England’s going to run out of water says the Environment Agency
It’s a pretty good indication that someone, somewhere, is doing something wrong when one of the rainier places on the planet is warned that it will run out of water. But that’s what the Environment Agency is forecasting for England in the coming decades. What’s being done wrong is that people just aren’t using prices properly:
People should take showers instead of baths, the head of the Environment Agency has said, as he warned of the need for personal water targets.
Sir James Bevan also suggested that householders could help avoid water supply shortages by turning the tap off while brushing their teeth and ensuring the washing machine is full before starting a cycle.
That’s the sort of wibble that always does get trotted out at times like this. It’s wibble because this just isn’t where the problem is.
England’s population is growing, and is set to rise to 58.5 million by 2026, putting even more stress on water supplies.
If no action is taken to reduce demand and increase water supplies , most areas will not be able to meet demand, the report said.
That is true but we’ve got to get the emphasis correct.
And in the future, with climate change, river flows are predicted to increase in the winter and decrease in the summer, which along with drier conditions because of warmer temperatures could have a greater effect on wildlife.
Start from the beginning again. We’ve a water system that does a reasonable enough job of providing for us as things are. We have an increasing population so we’ll need a bit more of that system perhaps. But quite how do we do that?
Well, what we should do is change the prices. That wasting of water in the home – put the price up and people will waste less, won’t they? Those leaky pipes. Currently water’s cheap enough that it’s cheaper to waste the water than it is to repair the pipes. Put the price up and we’ll solve that little problem too.
But we’ve also got that climate change problem. We’ll be getting more winter rain and less summer. Meaning that we’ll need to collect more of our water in winter and then eke it out over the summer. That will be a big change. Fortunately, we also know how to do this. For winter rain and none in the summer is how the entire Mediterranean works. So, we should do as they do. Many more reservoirs and dams to collect that winter rain so as to save it for the summer.
Err, something which will cost more which is where we can spend that money we’ve just raised by increasing prices to stop wastage.
There’s no real problem here that is. A few little adjustments and we’ll be fine. As long as the Environment Agency allows us to flood a few more valleys that is.
Posted: 23rd, May 2018 | In: News Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
