Why The UK's Water Systems Are Uniquely Ill-Prepard For Rapid Climate Breakdown

[hatrack]

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Climate

Before the impacts of climate breakdown became painfully apparent, the UK was a country that could rely on rainfall year-round. Why bother investing in water storage in a perpetually soggy country? In recent decades, this excuse has held less water as the trends have become clearer.

Jamie Hannaford, a hydrologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, says water shortages are frequently coming after floods: “Summer 2022 was an exceptional drought event, which closely followed another major drought in summer 2018. It is worth noting that the intervening period saw exceptional flooding in 2019-2020 and further flooding in early 2021. “Moreover, while relatively dry conditions continued in some areas into early 2023 following the 2022 drought, the period since mid-2023 to present has been very wet across most areas of the UK and the last autumn and winter has seen exceptional flooding. Recent years have therefore seen a pattern of hydrological ‘volatility’.

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Rivers

Before the ascent of the railway, the UK used canals for goods and transport. The golden age of the canal was between the 1770s and the 1830s. This meant that the naturally wiggly rivers, through which water flowed slowly, were straightened and deepened for ease of transport. Meandering streams were turned into major channels, and water flows more quickly through a deep, straight river than a wiggly one spreading out over the landscape. This has implications for flooding, as water rushes from the uplands quickly to towns and villages below, and also for water capacity, as rather than being retained in rivers and wetlands it goes quickly out to sea.

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Leaks

It is common during the baking summer months to see a geyser spouting from the road, sending gallons of water gushing down the drain due to a burst pipe. It sticks in the craw when one has been told to cut down on water use or banned from watering the garden. Pipes leak about a trillion litres of water a year; once again this problem is the result of a lack of investment. Many pipes are Victorian and the rate of replacing them is so slow it would take 2,000 years to get them up to scratch at the current rate of repairs.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/01/why-uk-facing-water-shortages-despite-record-rainfall-explainer

[3Hotdogs]

1. Not to worry. Boris and Brexit fixed the problem but it will take a few more years for the changes to

make their way down the Thames.

[hatrack]

2. Meanwhile, plenty of other things making their way down the Thames (Trent, Wye, Test) . . .

Turds, mostly.

Given the Tories' fixation on the glories of the Victorian past, maybe this was their first step to recreating the 1870s by altering water quality to match the Good Old Days?