Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
Ive had this in an email today from the Public Sector Executive...its interesting about the current drought conditions...
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Drought summit to discuss preventative measures
A drought summit is being held today, as parts of England suffer with groundwater levels lower than in 1976. Environment secretary Caroline Spelman is meeting with water companies, farmers and wildlife groups to discuss the situation in south east England, East Anglia and the East Midlands.
Many rivers are already drying up and while water companies have managed to reduce leakage by 36% since the 1990s there is still a danger of water shortages. Unless heavy and prolonged rain falls before April, water restrictions could be introduced in some areas of the country.
The summit will discuss the measures being implemented as well as actions that could mitigate against the impact of drought in the future.
Spelman said: "We're bringing everybody together today - the water industry, all the water users, the agriculture industry, the horticulturists, and also the green groups who are obviously concerned that we protect nature - because it's important actually we think about what preventative measures we can take now.
"People often say 'well why don't you just build a pipeline from the North West to the South East?' but it isn't that simple because water is heavy and costly to transport.
"But one of the things we will talk about at the summit today is talk about improved connectivity between water companies as part of improving our resilience in the face of these conditions."
Climate change projections suggest that the south-east will see drier summers and wetter winters. However, the extra winter water will not all be captured without new infrastructure, meaning droughts are likely to become more frequent.
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
As we saw on the news programmes today, water shortage is at a near all time low. Reservoirs are half empty which is virtually unheard of for this time of the year. TV Reporters stand grim faced at the base of empty reservoirs, when in normal times the water would be over their head.
AS we have seen recently, we seem to be having bizarre weather patterns. Last year there was an early summer heatwave almost unprecedented, and this year late snow following the warmest winter in yonks.
The climate is changing ( note Philip!
)...we are sure to face water shortages and inevitably increased costs from water companies, who forever seems to have problems getting water from A to B.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i wonder how much is lost in leaks though and how much effort is being made by water companies to harness the maximum amount of water that they can?
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
Well they keep claiming they are fixing the leaks..its one of the main reasons given for the continual hike in charges, but where the hell did all that recent snow go..we were up to our knees in it yet still we have no water, snow is water innit..of a different hue...extraordinary.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
paulb,1 foot of snow = 1 inch of rain water.
Guest 644- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,214
Trouble is you need a long period of persistent rain and snow to seep down into the aquifer and replenish the groundwater levels. Such a process is very slow; as the SE has had two years of reduced rainfall, it could take a long time to recover. Although we had a few days of snow, it was a brief period and ran off when melted - I doubt if a tiny fraction reached the aquifers.
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
We need a nationwide water network like we do gas and electrocity....
Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 725- Registered: 7 Oct 2011
- Posts: 1,418
To those worried well diehards all I can say is fear not. Drought is not that unusual in this country all things considered. Official records don't go back that far, relatively speaking, so one will have to spend days at the British library to see how common an exceptionally dry period might be.
Many insist on blaming the myth of man-made climate change on the dry period we now see. This is utterly ridiculous of course. You might as well blame the filling with water of the Olympic swimming pool for the lowering in UK water stocks. Stupid I know but it's more plausible if not more humorous.
The press love to spice these events up as they did a few years ago when the Bewl reservoir dropped below normal levels. Of course, in time, it filled up again like it always does. Interestingly I found this little piece on my surfing travels and gives an insight to the perils of getting what you wish for in terms of supposed "global warming". Looking at the evidence I know that I'd far prefer a warmer climate than what we in the UK experienced over the past few centuries well before Al Gore and Chris Huhne were there to trumpet plague and pestilence because of our sinful ways.
Read on:
http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=winter-history;sess=
Bear in mind that solar cycles 23, 24 and 25 are projected to be low in output similar to when they were a few centuries ago. Now this is something to worry about. The implications, if correct, could have a severe impact for all of us and there's nothing we can do to stop it.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
this issue comes up every other year with dramatic pictures of dry reservoirs.
no doubt a hose pipe ban will come into force by early summer, a bit pointless as hardly anyone uses one now that their supply is on a metered basis.
Guest 686- Registered: 5 May 2009
- Posts: 556
Quote: PaulB (post #2) "The climate is changing ( note Philip!
)"
The climate is always changing, it's predicting it that is so difficult because the cyclic nature of climate, as opposed to simple weather, is of such an extended periodicity. I seem to recall that just one of the many different cycles involved has a duration in the region of 7,000 years, while others are relatively short. Some of the influences on our climate come from well outside of this planet's atmosphere!
No doubt in a couple of weeks we'll all be complaining about too much rain!
Phil West
If at first you don't succeed, use a BIGGER hammer!!
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
If the rain doesn't come, there is a danger of wood fires in Kent.
The ideal solution would be to employ several thousand people to gather fallen branches and rake dry twigs and leaves in the woods, and dispose of them outside of the wooded areas, for example as compost.
Such operation may take a month or two, and would cost several million pounds on wages county-wise. I would volunteer straight away.
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
wonder what an all year round public sector executive does?
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
Very interesting stuff there guys..food for thought..
And speaking of food...there was much talk about drought on R4's Farming Today earlier, and it made for gloomy listening. With longer drier summers predicted in future and with spring just around the corner it looks as if we are in for a very dry spell indeed.
The lack of water will mean of course less irrigation and as a result less productivity..less food produced..result = higher prices in the supermarket. One potato farmer in Norfolk said he needs 1 million gallons of water per field of potatoes. Staggering..where will all this water come from?
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
Most of the crops grown under the giant green-houses and cloches use recycled water, so it's only those out in the open that suffer if there's a drought.
Roger
Guest 700- Registered: 11 Jun 2010
- Posts: 2,868
Our greenhouses are watered with water from our rain water tubs, we do not usually use tap water.
When there is a lot of rain we fill all the cans and containers, put them in greenhouses, and then more can accumulate in the tubs.
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Lincolnshire Born and Bred
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
"One potato farmer in Norfolk said he needs 1 million gallons of water per field of potatoes. Staggering..where will all this water come from?"
Mostly straight from the sky. An inch of rain on a hundred-acre field is over a quarter of a million gallons.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
Re # 16.
Is it ? gosh well I never. So if said farmer gets four downpours he will be alright. Seems an awful lot doesnt it.
If 1 million gallons falls on every field we would be surely having the need for Noahs Ark all over again...
Although are there many fields 100 acres big.. I dunno.
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
Paul Scotchie, I think you should get your facts right in biology before making such remarks. They don't do you credit!
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
Paul Skotchie, I came across the following research on the Mendely web-page under
biological sciences:
"Undergrowth clearing is a widespread forest management technique used in many Mediterranean regions to reduce dense vegetation in order to prevent fire."
As you can see here, the ecosystem is not killed off, but protected against fires, so the idea is not actually mine, but a wide-spread practice in regions which experience dry summers.
The text goes on to state:
"To reconcile forest management and bird diversity, undergrowth clearing should be applied selectively to ensure that a certain number of undergrowth patches, preferably corresponding to different shrub species, are not affected by management treatments."
So in undergrowth clearing, attention is given to biodiversity.
Further research on various web-sites shows that the undergrowth is transformed into compost within the woods, so there is no mention of lining people along the motorways with buckets.
So perhaps there might be some work going at long last in Kent for vigorous and enthusiastic people in search of more work. Let's hope so!
