Water Shortages

[sparkles2006]

Why is it that this country cannot keep our water supply up to an acceptable level without resorting to hosepipe bans etc . Whilst working away three years ago in Saudi Arabia we were able to wash our cars , Company Aircraft ( thats were i worked ) water whatever we liked and not even a hint of a ban . No one had seen proper rain there for about five years yet we are surrounded with water and we are left to sort of suffer the consequences or pay a fine .

[andy-hughes]

The combination of circumstances, natural and man-made have caused this situation.

Natural first - a serious decline in regular sustained rainfall has meant that surface water has evaporated before it has had chance to seep into the soil and replenish the subteranian water table, or wash down into the reservoirs - hence an ongoing, and increasing shortage.

Man-made - the water companies work on a profit basis, so any and all spare money is used to dividend shareholders, which means that replacement of Victorian piping and seriously leaking piping nationally means that one third of the available water is leaked and wasted.

Re-nationalising the water companies and putting the profits back into the infastructure would be a good start, as would finding a way of using re-cycled non-drinking water to flush toilets and supply industrial requirements.

It;s not difficult, it just means that the suits stop raking off the cream - and that's not going to happen any time soon.

[WoWo]

You also can't compare here with somewhere like Saudi Arabia who effectively have money to burn with all their Oil Reserves. It's possible to filter sea water but in comparison to the methods we use it's seriously expensive, not a problem in Saudi Arabia.

Compare here with somewhere like the Gambia where they might have to walk 10 miles a day to get dirty water.

Yet again this country is paying for being world leaders 100+ years ago, we had plumbing and sewers decades before most of the world which at the time was fantastic, but now that needs to be replaced at high cost.

[nikita**]

THe Water Board has one big pipe that goes to all our homes with one big hole to leak as much water as it can.. They have put a ban on hosepipes but it is too late, i have already bought one.

[jno]

The Saudis rely heavily on desalination plants (ie treated seawater), which are relatively new. England relies on Victorian infrastructure that needs more refurbishment than it's getting. Rainfall has been low in England for a while now, but not so bad that it would make sense to build desalination plants of our own. (It's the same with having snow - but not so much of it that it would make sense to invest in a lot of expensive snow-clearing equipment.) The problems of a mild, but slowly changing, climate. But a hosepipe ban isn't really going to make my life a misery.

[plonker]

Why, why, why do I come across a burst water main regularly? Water gushing out on a main road with proper pipes not the victorian lark. The water auth. lose millions through leaks, enough water to supply the whole country - and they make a huge PROFIT. Let us sit back and say and do nothing then. Excuses, excuses, excuses - and nothing is ever done.