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Drought declared by the people who do this sort of thing. Leading the way to water use restrictions in most parts of the Country.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... strictions

I know this gives greater powers to the water companies and will disrupt people and industry, but you do wonder why it didn’t happen a month ago.

Not as though the weather wasn’t forecast.

Or perhaps it’ll be like 1976 when they appointed a Minister for Drought (? Denis Howell ) and it started to rain the following week.

Some areas are instigating a hosepipe ban straight away. Some of the others have said "oh we know it's a drought, but we don't think we need to do a hosepipe ban for another 2.5 weeks". WTF?

Our water company has said they don't intend to bring in any restrictions at all here. We've got a well, anyway, so any restrictions wouldn't impact us, although there is always the risk that our well could run dry, not that it ever has. I remember a hydrogeologist telling me years ago that all the wells around here were pulling up water that fell as rain many decades ago, so presumably there is a big time lag between periods of dry weather and the effect of that on deep aquifers.

Thought I'd post the news that Wales is declaring drought and hosepipe bans in some regions:

Drought declared in parts of Wales after water levels plummet

I think this is quite important because we usually get away with it here, lots of water. I can't recall the last hosepipe ban here, but I suspect it was around 1990(ish). During the major drought and hosepipe bans back in 1995/96(?) I actually worked in the Welsh Office, Environment Division, and one of my jobs for about 6 months, was collating reservoir level info for the Secretary of State (SOS). So each week we got the numbers and provided them forwarded.

I mention this because Dwr Cymru (the water/sewerage arm of Welsh Water) didn't impose bans, despite pressure from the SOS and the National Rivers Authority. They gambled that they could get away with it, and they were right, but it was a very close call.

So if Wales is struggling, then that's probably a bad indicator for England.


Off on a tangent now, but there were thoughts, but only minimal consideration, of using Welsh water excess to help London. Many of the Welsh reservoirs are linked to help assure supplies, so the idea was to shift water across Wales, to the upper Severn, then abstract it back out of the river, and across to the Thames. Sounds nuts, but was technically possible, but I think simpler and cheaper solutions were found, even as simple as lower volume flush toilets etc..

Thames Water is only just now declaring a hosepipe ban so levels must have been thought sufficient. I can't say for the Thames but the river Loddon, which runs near me, looks a bit low but not alarmingly so considering how little rain there has been around here.

The stream that runs alongside our garden is a bit lower than usual, but not much, TBH. I walked up to the springs that feed it a week or so ago and they were all still running, so it seems that the chalk aquifer is still reasonably topped up. The lower greensand aquifer that our well pulls from is about 40m to 50m below the chalk, so seems unlikely to be impacted for a long while yet. The two aquifers are hydraulically connected, but there's a deep bed of gault clay between them, so any seepage tends to be very slow, as the gault acts as a pretty effective aquitard.

Mart wrote: ↑Fri Aug 19, 2022 11:03 am Thought I'd post the news that Wales is declaring drought and hosepipe bans in some regions:

Off on a tangent now, but there were thoughts, but only minimal consideration, of using Welsh water excess to help London. Many of the Welsh reservoirs are linked to help assure supplies, so the idea was to shift water across Wales, to the upper Severn, then abstract it back out of the river, and across to the Thames. Sounds nuts, but was technically possible, but I think simpler and cheaper solutions were found, even as simple as lower volume flush toilets etc..

still are...
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wate ... r-24765018

Water should be moved from Wales to London and the south east of England, according to a London-based union. As London is in a drought, GMB London, a water workers' union, has proposed reviving the so-called "win-win" plan from the Victorian era to move water from a Welsh lake to help London's situation.

The plan would see water taken from United Utilities at Lake Vyrnwy in Powys via the restoration of the Cotswold canals and Sapperton Canal Tunnel in Gloucester. GMB London has said the plan could help to deal with periodic droughts in and around London.

Although moving water around the UK is by no means a new idea, the union's call to use Welsh reservoirs to provide water to England may prove controversial on this side of Offa's Dyke. With some reservoirs in Wales showing lower water levels than usual there are bound to be questions about whether the plans are the best use of resources - and for some, the idea may have unsavoury echoes of the Tryweryn Valley being flooded to create a reservoir to supply Liverpool with water.

and
https://nation.cymru/news/canal-shippin ... or-tories/

Senior Conservatives are floating the idea of a ‘Great Boris Canal’ named after the outgoing Prime Minister to transfer water from the north of Wales to the south of England.

The £14billion plan was first suggested by Boris Johnson when he was the Mayor of London but according to the Daily Mail senior Conservatives are now pushing the idea again after parts of England were declared to be officially in drought.

Any sign that says "Grand Boris Canal" will be altered to read "Randy Boris ❤ s anal"

It's the logical move imho, ..wonder how long before the re-naming thereafter.

Mart wrote: ↑Fri Aug 19, 2022 11:03 am ... thoughts, but only minimal consideration, of using Welsh water excess to help London. Many of the Welsh reservoirs are linked to help assure supplies, so the idea was to shift water across Wales, to the upper Severn, then abstract it back out of the river, and across to the Thames. Sounds nuts, but was technically possible, but I think simpler and cheaper solutions were found, even as simple as lower volume flush toilets etc..

more than thoughts, and a lot more than minimal consideration is going on. The post https://camelot-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... 882#p14882 (which didn't inspire any discussion) included the quote

A conglomerate of government bodies said that major plans were being prepared to improve water storage and transfer across England and Wales. A £500million scheme called Rapid – Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development – was set up jointly in 2019 by Ofwat, the Environment Agency (EA) and the Drinking Water Inspectorate.
“We are now investigating different schemes with the aim of implementing the most promising in a couple of years,” said Paul Hickey, managing director of Rapid.
Among the projects being considered are a series of new reservoirs that could be built in different parts of the country and schemes that would allow engineers to transfer water from the north of England

No mention of South Wales though.