With a dire warning from the UK’s chief executive of the
Environment Agency, will England run out of water during the next 25 years?
By: Ringo Bones
Although he offered relatively easy manageable steps to avert
such a crisis if the UK’s citizens act now, UK’s chief executive of the
Environmental Agency Sir James Bevan had issued a warning that the country is
facing the “jaws of death” – a term often used to define the point where water
demand from the country’s rising population could soon surpass the falling
supply resulting from climate change and according to Bevan, this could happen
within the next 25 years. However, this so-called “water crisis” could be
avoided with ambitious action to cut people’s water use by a third and leakage
from water pipes by 50-percent, he says, along with big new reservoirs, more
desalination plants and transfers of water across the country.
In his speech six days ago, Bevan says: “Water companies all
identify the same thing as their biggest operating risk: climate change.” By
2040, more than half of our summers are expected to be hotter than the 2003
heatwave, he says, leading to more water shortages and potentially 50 to
80-percent less water in some rivers in the summer. Quite a dire warning indeed
given that the last time the UK’s water shortage got worldwide attention was
back in 1959 when a drought in Speyside, Scotland triggered a “minor emergency”
when the streams that gave Scotch Whiskey its distinctive flavor dried up.
The UK’s projected water shortage is actually caused by
projected population growth as it is expected to rise from 67-million to
75-million in 2050, increasing the demand for water. But Bevan says the average
person’s daily use of 140 liters could be cut to 100 liters in 20 years by more
efficient use in homes and gardens. Currently, about a third of water is loss
to leaks or wastage. Although, the most controversial change needed to increase
supply is building new mega-reservoirs, such as that proposed near Abingdon in
Oxfordshire. This was deemed controversial because according to Bevan: “We have
not built a new reservoir in the UK for decades, largely because clearing all
the planning and legal hurdles necessary is so difficult and local opposition
so fierce”.
