Drought Fears for UK
Within 25 years England will not have enough water to meet demand, the head of the Environment Agency is warning.
You can be forgiven for thinking water security isn’t an issue in the UK but extraction of groundwater – the water beneath the earth’s surface – is no longer at a sustainable level. Yet enough water to meet the needs of 20 million people is still lost through leakage every day, according to a new report.
The study – the first major report on water resources in England – says that population growth and climate change are the biggest pressures on a system that is already struggling. The Environment Agency wants people to have a personal water target and has urged them to use water more wisely at home.
In 2016, some 9,500 billion litres of freshwater were taken from rivers, lakes, reservoirs and underground sources, with 55% of this used by public water companies, and 27% going to the electricity supply industry. But in addition to the 3 billion litres a day that are wasted through leakage, there is a considerable price being paid in terms of the sustainability of these supplies.
The head of the Environment Agency, Sir James Bevan, is warning said the country is facing an “existential threat” and wants to see wasting water become:
“…as socially unacceptable as blowing smoke in the face of a baby”.
Addressing the questions of how to reduce the amount of water that is being used, Michael Roberts, from Water UK, said water companies were tackling the question head-on.
“It’s actually everyone’s issue. In the home we have to do our bit and as companies we have to do our bit – but the good news is that domestic consumption has been coming down for the last decade, and in terms of leakage, we are leaking a third less than we did 30 years ago, but there is a heck of a lot more to do.”
Rising temperatures will affect the timing and amount of rainfall that flows into rivers and replenishes groundwater supplies. Although average summer rainfall is not predicted to change, more rainfall is likely to occur in large downpours in the future, increasing the chances of droughts and floods happening at the same time – downpours tend to deliver water faster than the ground can absorb it hence the flooding.
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