English drought warning spreads

Published on Tuesday 21 February 2012 00:00

The south-east of England is now in a state of drought, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has announced.

The region joins parts of eastern England that have been drought-afflicted since last summer, with reservoirs, rivers and groundwater aquifers in the South-east well below normal levels after two dry winters.

The state of drought in the region was declared after Defra convened a summit of water companies, farmers and wildlife groups yesterday to discuss potential water shortages in England.

Following the summit, Thames Water warned that there was a high chance of water restrictions, such as hosepipe bans, this summer, unless there was significant rainfall or customers used less water.

Some rivers and groundwater levels are lower than during the drought of 1976.

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Richard Lionheart

Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 03:11 PM

What a farse! They have played Climate Change games now for more than a decade, have set out on a futile bid and spent billions of our tax pounds to "Stop The Climate Changing" and have failed to adapt to what is actually happening! The climate has always changed! Humankind has survived because Humans have always adapted to the changing climate and have always realised that they cannot do a thing to stop the climate from changing. End Green Anarchist policies NOW = Save the Human Race and the Planet

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8

Irritatingly Intelligent Chauvinist

Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 05:15 PM

Don't worry England or Wales, once we here in Scotland are independent we might just about have enough water to sell you a drop or two, at a very reasonable price of course.

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David Ban

Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 01:49 PM

I can remember a TV discussion at the time in the 70´s? when there was a severe water shortage in the South of England and a round table discussion was to set up to discuss procedures etc.. to avoid such crises in the future. On one side sat an attractive highly qualified young woman engineer bubbling with ideas and on the other sat a stuffed prat of an MP ( Conservative I think) who poured scorn on everything she said most likely bound up with his latent gynophobia. The lady explained that by preparing and linking up water way canals in England with pipes and pumps water could be sent down from Scotland as an emergency procedure. Nothing was done and no plans implemented, but with Scotland on a more independent fiscal basis at least we could advise and CHARGE!

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6

samcoldstream

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 07:40 PM

Members of the London Assembly are once again repeating London Mayor Boris Johnson's call for a national water grid to pipe the water resources of North Wales, the North of England, and Scotland to the South-East of England? Carwyn Jones, First Minister of Wales, and Welsh AMs, with the exception of the Welsh Tories have told Boris to get ........

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5

Flakey

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 04:13 PM

Westminster wants a national water grid, so it can take water from Scotland and Wales into England. Will it be like the national grid where scotland have to pay more money to put into the grid because it is further away from London? Who will pay for the construction? will Scots' get the work? what affect will it have on the evnvironment? how musc disruption will it cause? Oh dear, ifwhen Scotland get independance, then ENGLAND will HAVE to pay for Scottish water......Westminster should be tackling the over population of our small islands. Typiocal WEestminster, let chaos happen, then try and deal with it when it is too mlate.

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4

blue brazil

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 12:45 PM

if scotland is to supply the water then we should be paid for it .

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3

Hector the Lessor

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 08:58 AM

Well if it is any consolation the Eastern coast of Australia is awash with water. Not is it giving the country a hard time, but Australia now has three multi billion dollar desalination plants that are giving the powers that be, considerable embarrassment. Personally though I reckon it is a bit raw, I would go for a pipeline from Scotland down to the Southern Counties. Unless of course folk felt that folk felt that the black clouds on the border concealed glorious sunshine when you got through them.

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gus1940

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 07:18 AM

I have just spent considerable time typing and submitting a constructive comment on this item. Your 'system' responded saying my comment had been posted but it appears to have vanished into thin air without even a 'Pending Moderation' or 'Comment Deleted'. What a way to treat your readers.

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Huntly Loon

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 01:46 AM

The Unionists claim Scotland cannot be independent because it lacks resources. It is England which has a shortage of resources sufficient to maintain its population. Water is pretty important resource that a country needs to have.

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