Potential drought coming to UK

[Kiwififer]

Nick Ferrari the other week came up with a solution to your problems down there a couple of weeks ago.

If a water company knowingly discharges sewage into a river or sea, the chief executive is jailed for 5 years.

That should sort it out.

[jansman]

Nick Ferrari the other week came up with a solution to your problems down there a couple of weeks ago.

If a water company knowingly discharges sewage into a river or sea, the chief executive is jailed for 5 years.

That should sort it out.

That sounds rather sensible.

[Frnc]

Guardian Nov 2021

"A recent report, by Surfers Against Sewage, found earlier this month that water companies spilled raw sewage into the coastal bathing waters used by holidaymakers and families over 5,500 times in the last year, a surge of more than 87% from the year before."

FT
"UK water company dividends jump to £1.4bn despite criticism over sewage outflows"
2022

BBC
"In 2022, raw sewage was dumped into rivers and seas for 1.75 million hours - or 825 times a day on average."

[GeeGee]

Years ago in 1991 my then 1 year old son contracted cryptosporiduim ..hospitalised and progressed to meningitis was in a coma for a while but survived the source was traced to animal contamination in the tap water
I've boiled everything ever since instead of going straight to tap for water for juice etc
The little boy in the next room similar age didn't survive same issue crypto due to the contamination lived in same area as us .. its how it was traced
His parents had been in news campaigning for the water board to clean up their act on tv local news in the streets
Around 2003 my son was in the local news as he was signed up for football team which he continued and still referees up to division 1 hes knocking on a bit now at 33 for it but at least he got the chance to get older
The parents of the little boy who died contacted me and had a chat I felt so bad for them.. I hadn't campaigned I was so wrapped up in trying to get my son to live ..it was awful times
This was 1991
And drinking water ..was told ..we'll learn lessons from this ..yeah sure ..easy way out ..
Nothing has changed its got worse they put prices up to update everything but never improved the system
Just polluting everything now
I still boil the water ...

[Frnc]

Years ago in 1991 my then 1 year old son contracted cryptosporiduim ..hospitalised and progressed to meningitis was in a coma for a while but survived the source was traced to animal contamination in the tap water
I've boiled everything ever since instead of going straight to tap for water for juice etc
The little boy in the next room similar age didn't survive same issue crypto due to the contamination lived in same area as us .. its how it was traced
His parents had been in news campaigning for the water board to clean up their act on tv local news in the streets
Around 2003 my son was in the local news as he was signed up for football team which he continued and still referees up to division 1 hes knocking on a bit now at 33 for it but at least he got the chance to get older
The parents of the little boy who died contacted me and had a chat I felt so bad for them.. I hadn't campaigned I was so wrapped up in trying to get my son to live ..it was awful times
This was 1991
And drinking water ..was told ..we'll learn lessons from this ..yeah sure ..easy way out ..
Nothing has changed its got worse they put prices up to update everything but never improved the system
Just polluting everything now
I still boil the water ...

Crikey, if the tap water's that bad imagine what the rivers and the coast is like. I don't know what it was like before, but 1991 is 2 years after the water was privatised.

90% of sewage monitors at seasides are broken.

Every single one of England’s rivers now fails to meet safety standards.

It's not just human sewage. "More and bigger industrial farms are one of the biggest drivers of water pollution in the UK. It’s partly that factory-farmed animals, like chickens and cows, produce lots of poo. But the industrial farm model also relies on chemicals to keep the land producing crops. Chemicals get sprayed onto overworked farmland. And industrial farms become more reliant on these sprays as soil health worsens. Our rivers suffer as livestock waste and chemicals leach from farms, polluting the water with a chemical cocktail." Greenpeace

".... who was in charge at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) between 2014 and 2016, oversaw “efficiency” plans set out in the 2015 spending review to reduce Environment Agency funding by £235m." Guardian

Raw sewage dumps have doubled since those cuts.

" is ripping up green planning laws. These regulate how much phosphate and nitrates are in waterways". This is from before the current PM. I don't know if it has changed.

" Last July a Guardian investigation revealed that raw sewage had been pumped into English rivers via storm overflows more than 200,000 times in 2019."

In 2021, serious pollution incidents rose to their highest level since 2013.

[Ahastyatom]

That’s certainly not in Scotland!

The new tourist slogan is…

Visit Scotland. It rains all the time!

Living somewhere where it rains a lot may not be of much help. Over the years it's been proposed that Wales ship water to the east. One year it rained pretty constant here for a couple of months but nothing fell over the London and the east. It was suggested that they Implement a hose pipe ban to free up water to send to London. Unfortunately/fortunately for London they then got heavy rain that caused lots of flooding/but did refill their reservoirs.

[Peter]

On a personal level we know how important potable water is but you can never store enough, commercially bottled water ?, jerrycans ?, even if you have room for a couple of IBC’s how do you replace it when you’ve used it. You also need water for your crops, grey water ?.

Have you backup waterbutts ?, a local spring or pool ?, can you transport the water from there ?, can you purify/filter it ?, have you made provision to collect any rainwater ? for example spreading out a large tarp ?.

Lots of questions, lots to think about, but with common sense...............

[jansman]

On a personal level we know how important potable water is but you can never store enough, commercially bottled water ?, jerrycans ?, even if you have room for a couple of IBC’s how do you replace it when you’ve used it. You also need water for your crops, grey water ?.

Have you backup waterbutts ?, a local spring or pool ?, can you transport the water from there ?, can you purify/filter it ?, have you made provision to collect any rainwater ? for example spreading out a large tarp ?.

Lots of questions, lots to think about, but with common sense...............

I have one weeks worth stored. I have filters and chemicals. I have a huge rain harvesting system,along with huge roofing. A spring and a brook too. Simple and easy to use.