If you’ve watched the news as of late, you may be surprised to learn that drought is by no means a new phenomenon for the UK. Stemming back to the 1930s, factors such as unequal rainfall distribution have led to national water shortages.. In 1976, the UK implemented the Drought Act; in addition to a temporary hosepipe ban. However, decades on, taxpayers are bound to ask why there hasn’t been any notable improvement in response to droughts, and why it is always them that has to pick up the slack.
Water suppliers such as Dwr Cymru, Southern, South East Water, South West Water, Thames Water and Yorkshire Water have all introduced hosepipe bans this month. The National Infrastructure Commission has suggested a three-pronged attack on this environmental crisis: reduce demand, reduce leakage and improve infrastructure. However, time after time, it seems that it is only households that are made to keep their side of bargain.
A reliance on hosepipe bans is neither fair nor sustainable, placing the onus on consumers to alter their living and shifts them into a state of shock and worry. We see behaviours change to stockpile water and increase excessive usage before demand is forcefully reduced. This state of emergency should be just that: an emergency response, especially when billions are spent yearly to improve infrastructure and some suppliers are losing up to 30 per cent of their total water.
Leakage reports indicate that 3,112.7 megalitres of water are lost per day by UK water suppliers, even with billions of pounds being spent on preventing leakages. So whilst households are asked to turn off their taps and stop using their hoses, it’s business as usual water suppliers To their credit, suppliers are reducing their leakagest, but this sluggish progress is not good enough when individual freedoms are at stake. Thames Water leaks 24.2% of their total water supply per day, measuring up to 635.6 ml/d – equal to 3,739 households being able to use their hose pipe for 10 mins every day. How can these levels of loss for such a precious resource be considered acceptable?
Aside from leakage, the logical answer to meeting demand has to be to increase supply, yet Britain’s reservoir capacity has remained stifled under a deluge of NIMBYism and red tape. Up to £470 million has been spent on building the Havant Thicket reservoir, but results are yet to be seen, with the National Infrastructure Commission lamenting the elongated approval process and an even slower start to construction. Incredibly, this is the first new reservoir to be built in the South East since the 1970s! Perhaps this shouldn’t come as a surprise given our politicians’ tendencies to bend over backwards to placate NIMBYs.
All the while, the government is intent on throwing vast sums at spurious projects that will only seek to benefit the UK in the far future; such as the £675 million has been allocated to the England Trees Action Plan to plant drought-resistant trees and help the government’s net zero strategy. Whilst this has obvious benefits, consumers are still expected to bear the brunt of harsh regulation and water shortages in the meantime.
Ultimately, it is unfair for the government and regulators to force consumers to sacrifice their rights to offset their own poor planning and management. As we near a century of droughts on these isles, taxpayers can no longer be expected to pick up the slack for unchecked bureaucracy. With many more hot summers ahead, it’s time for ministers and officials to wash away decades of mismanagement of water supplies by getting tough on leaks, slashing red tape and bolstering investment.