Water Shortages Forecast To Be Common Occurance

With the hosepipe ban in the North West due to start from 6 am Friday 9th July in an attempt to reduce water consumption, climate change is becoming a reality to many. Despite this, complaints to United Utilities about the ban have been increasing this week as consumers realise that the ban only applies to the North West for reasons consumers are not aware of.

The main reason relates to the way in which water is captured and stored. The North West has no underground storage systems in place, resulting in higher levels of evaporation in the NW's reseviours.

However, the end of June saw the Met Office announce the results of a study which looked at how frequently droughts could occur in the UK by 2100. The Met Office’s climate model was used to investigate a number of scenarios and the majority of them found that extreme droughts are likely to be more common.

The drought of 1976 (one of the worst on record) was used as a benchmark, therefore, the Met Office’s investigations were intended to provide an indication of the possibility of 1976-style droughts occurring in the UK.

The study looked at 11 different scenarios. At the lower end, the results predicted that extreme droughts would continue to be as rare as they are at present, ie occurring once in every 50–100 years. In most of the other outcomes, however, extreme droughts were predicted to become much more frequent, with the high-end scenario predicting a frequency of once in every decade.

These findings are significant; a fact emphasised by Eleanor Burke, a Climate Extremes Scientist with the Met Office, who made the point that understanding how droughts will affect the UK in the future is a vital aspect in learning how to adapt to climate change.

But much can be done by consumersw themeselves as water wastage is a major problem in the UK. Apart from the leaks in water collection systems throughout the UK and the fact that once again profit is put befofre the environment, the consumer can and must cut down on its own wastage through running taps, over zealous hosing of gardens and car washing, plus the use of half empty washing and dish washer machines.

Tips on saving water at home and in the garden can be found here

Source: Met Office / Croners / Unionsafety

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