Uk forecast for water shortages

Mango killa

Mango killa

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been watching a item on the news this morning with some blerk on,waffling on about the uk running out of water in the future. Explain to me, like i am a 6 year old why we cannot siphon water off our rivers when they are reaching the sea so all the envoirement backover is unaffected. I mean its only flowing into the sea, we must have thousands of rivers.
 


We pump thousands of gallons every summer anyhow to ease water shortage without heatwaves.

More so this year so some rivers were dangerously low. Might be better if the water companies fixed all the broken pipes to reduce wasting precious water through leakage.

Be surprised if they did not lose more than the custoners actually use. They need their arses kicking and less bonuses to shareholder investors and more spent uprating system instead of ripping off cuustomers.
 
Jimmer13 said:
We pump thousands of gallons every summer anyhow to ease water shortage without heatwaves.

More so this year so some rivers were dangerously low. Might be better if the water companies fixed all the broken pipes to reduce wasting precious water through leakage.

Be surprised if they did not lose more than the custoners actually use. They need their arses kicking and less bonuses to shareholder investors and more spent uprating system instead of ripping off cuustomers.
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Totally agree with that part as well, seems to be lacking in investment to sort out the leaks, replacing ageing piping.
 
Mango killa said:
Would be treated first though. Give the water around sellafield a miss tho.
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The water which supplies most of Sunderland is taken from an extraction point at Lumley as Northumbrian Water choose to use the Wear as a natural conduit rather than install pipes. The rest is extracted via from an underground aquifer. Both sources are treated before entering the potable water supply.

We are fortunate though as all rivers in the NE have a fantastic catchment area in the Peninnes.

The water shortages generally take place in the south as the area is far bigger, and rainfall isn't as prevalent as up here.

The problem with your concern is that the local water authorities set quotas for allowable levels of extraction for all rivers as too much can cause secondary issues elsewhere. For example, the aquifer we extract from is water running over an impervious layer of strata at quite a deep level. The water enters the system inland and flows toward the sea. Increased extraction inland can* decrease the volumes in the aquifer downstream. The water authorities do know what they are doing.

*Obviously, the above is one possibility and other rivers/ systems may have different characteristics.
 
Surely Kielder would mean that we wont run out up here? Having said that , Berwick doesn’t take its water from there , it comes from the Greenlaw aquifer in the Scottish Borders.
 
Kevj said:
The water which supplies most of Sunderland is taken from an extraction point at Lumley as Northumbrian Water choose to use the Wear as a natural conduit rather than install pipes. The rest is extracted via from an underground aquifer. Both sources are treated before entering the potable water supply.

We are fortunate though as all rivers in the NE have a fantastic catchment area in the Peninnes.

The water shortages generally take place in the south as the area is far bigger, and rainfall isn't as prevalent as up here.

The problem with your concern is that the local water authorities set quotas for allowable levels of extraction for all rivers as too much can cause secondary issues elsewhere. For example, the aquifer we extract from is water running over an impervious layer of strata at quite a deep level. The water enters the system inland and flows toward the sea. Increased extraction inland can* decrease the volumes in the aquifer downstream. The water authorities do know what they are doing.

*Obviously, the above is one possibility and other rivers/ systems may have different characteristics.
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Very interesting, did not know it was taken from the wear. I understand the bit about further down the country being more affected. Can you envisage us being like spain though and de-salinating sea water ?
 
Loads of water is stored with no way of being in the system, shelves full of it in supermarkets for example, the more the population rises the more that will increase, for every bottle emptied another is getting filled, that's everything from water to beer to soft drinks etc etc.

Will that have any affect on anything or does it not matter, I'm not a scientist but did a little bit of research and couldn't really find an answer.
 
Mango killa said:
Very interesting, did not know it was taken from the wear. I understand the bit about further down the country being more affected. Can you envisage us being like spain though and de-salinating sea water ?
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It’s entirely down to cost. If the frequency of dry summers persists, while the cost of supplying sufficient volumes of water increases due to this, then yes, alternative methods of producing potable water will be needed.
 
Keith S30S said:
Keilder was built with the steel industry in mind as they use vast amounts of water. The steel industry has died a death which means the North East will never be short of water baring a drought for several months.
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This.
Keilder means we will always have a water supply here in the North East.
 
Kevj said:
I read only two weeks ago that there’s a new pipeline installation which is due to start which will supply water from the Tees into Yorkshire. With time, it will all be linked I imagine.
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Aye, I dare say it will be possible - a national grid for water. - But do we in England really need such a scheme? It is quite rare that we have a really hot & dry summer, and even the hosepipe ban over in Cumbria got lifted earlier on in the month.
But it will take a lot of money to fund all of the new pipelines, pumping stations, drainage etc.
And who will pay for such projects? The local water companies customers will no doubt pay the bigger share - and the good old UK tax payer will have to make up the rest - even though the water companies are privately run.
 

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