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Britain must be prepared for ‘worst droughts in modern times’

Britain must be prepared for ‘worst droughts in modern times’ thumbnail

 

The UK must prepare for “the worst droughts in modern times” experts will warn this week at a major international conference to discuss the growing global water crisis.

As the population continues to grow and water is increasingly scarce, suppliers across Britain simply “cannot afford to fail”, according to Trevor Bishop, the Environment Agency’s deputy director. “We need to have more resilience, we need to be able to deal with tougher situations, and we cannot afford to fail. The consequences of failure would be very substantial,” he said.

“In the past we have planned for our water resources to cope with the worst situation on record but records are only 100 years long,” he explained. “We may get a situation that is worse than that – with climate change that is perfectly possible.”

He is expected to outline five key solutions the UK needs to embrace to avoid critical water shortages when he speaks in Lisbon at the International Water Association’s (IWA) World Water Congress this week. They include more desalination plants to turn seawater into drinking water, bigger reservoirs and a larger pipeline network to connect different regions to increase water availability in times of scarcity. Other proposals include tougher water extraction licences – and it is understood that one company, Albion Water, is even looking into importing water from Norway to meet demand.

Desalinating saltwater has long been criticised as costly and energy-intensive. But IWA director Ger Bergkamp said the technology had enormous potential. “Desalination is now becoming cheaper and cheaper and therefore the application of desalinated seawater in agriculture becomes more and more feasible,” he said. “If continued, this could revolutionise agriculture production in many areas where there’s a lot of sun but no water.”

Abberton reservoir in Essex has recently had its capacity greatly enlarged Abberton reservoir in Essex has recently had its capacity greatly enlarged (Alamy)

The process also has a unique appeal for the UK, said Mr Bishop, given that it is “highly resilient to climate change because there is always a coastline”. At present the only municipal desalination plant in the UK is located in Beckton, east London, and is used only during periods of drought. The plant, operated by Thames Water, has been put into service eight times since 2010.

Although most UK water companies have distanced themselves from such a project, Southern Water, which serves Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Sussex and Kent, plans to build a new desalination plant in Southampton by 2028.

DesalData, a desalination consultancy, said it is aware of two possible municipal desalination projects on the South Coast, and Mr Bishop predicts there will be several more desalination plants built in the south-east of England by 2050.

A number of new and extended reservoirs will also help UK water companies to “maximise capacity”, said Mr Bishop. Despite being struck by floods this weekend and having one of the longest coastlines in the UK, Essex is also Britain’s driest county, according to local water company Essex & Suffolk Water.

The company has extended its Abberton reservoir, near Colchester, from a capacity of 26 billion litres to 41 billion litres. In south-west England, Bristol Water is planning a second 9,400m-litre reservoir at Cheddar in Somerset; Dwr Cymru (Welsh Water) last year commissioned a major new reservoir for treated water in Coed Dolwyd, north Wales; and South East Water intends to build a 3,000m-litre reservoir near Canterbury by 2035. Scottish Water completed extension work on its Black Esk reservoir in Dumfries and Galloway in June and is now considering a new dam to increase water supply in the Western Isles.

Also needed are more extensive pipeline connections  between these water stores so that reservoirs can be a “shared resource” across regions, said Mr Bishop.

United Utilities completed its West East Link Main in 2011 and its 55km pipeline now carries 100 megalitres across the North-west of England from Prescot Reservoir near Liverpool to Woodgate Hill Reservoir, north of Manchester. Earlier this year, Anglian Water proposed a similarly intensive project to pipe raw water from the river Trent across to the west of East Anglia. This should be completed by 2025.

Other proposals to avoid critical water shortages include tougher water extraction licences Other proposals to avoid critical water shortages include tougher water extraction licences (Getty)

In a bid to increase sustainability, damaging abstraction licences – permission to remove water from rivers, streams and aquifers – are also being revoked as part of the Government’s long-term plan. “As we prepare for climate change we want to turn our environment back into a stable healthy state so that it can deal with the shock,” said Mr Bishop. “Taking those licences away means that rivers that had run dry can become wet again.”

There are more than 21,000 licences to abstract water in the UK, and, in the past three years, about 100 have been revoked, while more than 200 have been reduced. Several rare chalk-stream environments in southern England – home to damselflies, otters and kingfishers – are now in the process of recovery.

“You could supply people and let all our rivers become effectively dry,” said Mr Bishop, “but that creates a very unhealthy society and it’s certainly not what we want to hand down to the next generation.”

The Government also recently consulted on a new “dynamic licensing regime”, which increases or decreases the amount that may be extracted according to how much water is available in the source at that time.  “Rather than getting a licence for a body of water, you will get a licence for a percentage of what is available,” said Mr Bishop. The legislation, designed to help water companies manage under conditions like the Australian 10-year drought,  is expected in the new parliament.

The public also need to be proactive to reduce overall water demand,  he insisted. The Environment Agency and UK water companies have committed to reducing domestic water usage by 800 megalitres a day before 2050.

Some water companies, including Thames Water and Anglian Water, offer free home visits to fit efficient products and add-ons, such as water-saving showerheads. “Smart metering” can also help reduce unidentified leaks said Professor Dragan Savic, director of the Centre for Water Systems at the University of Exeter. “If the meter registers that you are using water continuously at two o’clock in the morning then that is an indication there may be a running tap in the house that nobody knows about,” he said.

In cities with an ageing infrastructure, such as London, more than 25 per cent of treated water is lost to leakage, but if this were reduced by only 1 per cent, it would be enough to supply a further 224,000 people.


independent



13 Comments on "Britain must be prepared for ‘worst droughts in modern times’"

  1. yellowcanoe on Sun, 21st Sep 2014 7:55 pm 

    Here is a crazy idea — why not take steps to stop further population growth so that the demand for water doesn’t keep increasing!

  2. Makati1 on Sun, 21st Sep 2014 8:40 pm 

    yellowcanoe, 1/4 of their population increase is immigration. The same problem all of Europe seems to be having.

    Water is going to be more expensive than gasoline eventually. What water is left is all polluted. If your well is not,(Have you had it tested lately?) you are lucky. My last well was in the middle of farm land in limestone country and it was polluted with nitrogen from the farm. Good for plants but not for drinking.

  3. Plantagenet on Sun, 21st Sep 2014 10:39 pm 

    On a per capita basis, the Brits are the largest CO2 emitters in history when one takes into account all the coal they’ve burned since the industrial revolution began in England in the 19th century.

  4. MSN Fanboy on Mon, 22nd Sep 2014 2:35 am 

    Islamic breeder migration. Wouldn’t be so sad if it were not true.

    Nevermind, i’ve come to the conclusion the UK will be destroyed by the POD.

    They import a vast majority of “their” food. When this stops (aka Black Swans Arrive) The UK will have the worst famine and death amongst ALL nations.

  5. simonr on Mon, 22nd Sep 2014 2:59 am 

    Its not quite so simple, without a large population the UK cannot meet its pension needs.
    Without a large consumer base, the UK cannot get the cheap food and consumer goods that they have been used to.
    Its a kind of catch 22

  6. Makati1 on Mon, 22nd Sep 2014 3:25 am 

    simonr, you are correct. Most countries today are locked into that same situation. Anything else is a slow or fast death to their economy, depending on what necessities they have to import.

  7. Ralph on Mon, 22nd Sep 2014 4:42 am 

    The worst UK drought on record was 1976, when most of the grass died. We had a run of drought years in the 1990s but since then we have got progressively wetter, with record floods multiple times in the last decade.
    UK water demand and supply are out of balance, with massive demand in the south east, and most rain in the North and West. We manage water very well, but our Victorian infrastructure is crumbling. We have paid big water bills for 20 years now to rebuild this, and domestic demand has been coming down as water meters become widespread. Agricultural use is also much more closely managed. Water is of course critical, but for the UK I do not think drought will be a major issue.

  8. simonr on Mon, 22nd Sep 2014 6:29 am 

    Hi Ralph

    I suspect budget negotiations are soon upon us, that why this article surfaced mow

  9. Davy on Mon, 22nd Sep 2014 7:10 am 

    I am always impressed with the Europeans on a civilized approach to resource management. This is unlike the Wild West mentality in the US where greedy markets parasitically suck their blood. The uncontrolled economic and population growth in Asia is worse by pooping in their survival nest with pollution and developmental destruction of vital ecosystems. We need to look to Europe for resource efficiency and husbandry. We also need to look to Europe for descent management i.e the southern European economic descent. I cannot say the same for the top down in Europe with the Euro management. To be fair on this level I see no other major economy or region any better. Still, overall Europe is the canary in the coal mine of management of the fall from limits of growth and diminishing returns. The big challenge now will be diversification away from their Russian energy needs or capitulation to a Russian dependence. Capitulation is probably the smarter route but Europeans are so proud I doubt that will happen except by desperation. It is like I have said before a matter of no time no money. The party is over. It could be a cold winter in Europe.

  10. Kenz300 on Mon, 22nd Sep 2014 11:40 am 

    Quote — “As the population continues to grow and water is increasingly scarce, suppliers across Britain simply “cannot afford to fail”, according to Trevor Bishop, the Environment Agency’s deputy director. “We need to have more resilience, we need to be able to deal with tougher situations, and we cannot afford to fail. ”

    —————————-

    Maybe the population needs to stop growing………
    Endless population growth is not sustainable…. that is the point.

    Gas, oil and nuclear power plants all use huge amounts of water to generate electricity…… that can be eliminated by switching to safer, cleaner and cheaper alternative energy sources like wind and solar.

    ————-

    The Inevitability of Solar

    http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/09/the-inevitability-of-solar

  11. Simon on Mon, 22nd Sep 2014 12:26 pm 

    Hi Dave

    For some yes, but I have 6 cubic metres of wood (and foraging more by the day)
    and a nice shiny new wood heater/cooker/hot water stove so I am fine ….
    a Job wouldn’t go amiss though 😉

    Simon

  12. JuanP on Mon, 22nd Sep 2014 1:08 pm 

    I have read several scientific reports that forecast increased droughts and floods around the world, including megadroughts and megafloods all over the world.
    In a hotter world water will evaporate in larger amounts causing increased global precipitation. The heated air will also hold more moisture, so average humidity and storms will increase everywhere.
    The higher temperatures on the ground will increase evaporation of water from the soil at the surface, requiring more regular rain to sustain ground moisture. They will also increase animal and plant transpiration, which will require more watering.
    Finally, disrupted climate patterns will make rainfall and droughts extremely unpredictable.
    I don’t think many will be spared in the long run.

  13. Davy on Mon, 22nd Sep 2014 2:50 pm 

    Simon, if anyone is ready for SHTF you are. I appreciate all your prepper advice over past few months.

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