A water solution

The Scottish Government’s offer to assist drought-stricken parts of England with water is an interesting contribution on how to address the issue of water shortages (your report, 14 March).

However, we should maybe forget boosting water supply and instead curb demand, not only with a call to consumers to try and use less, but with basic engineering.

In London, Thames Water has an obscene leakage rate of 30 per cent The company loses 30 per cent of the water it puts into the mains – 200 litres a day for every customer. Paris and New York only lose about 10 per cent; Singapore is less than 5 per cent. England and Wales leakage rates, at about 25 per cent, are higher than a decade ago.

We also need household meters, with Britain almost alone in the industrialised world in not having universal water metering. Houses with meters use 15 per cent less water.

The Scottish Government has presented a solution to water shortages, but there is clearly more that those in drought-stricken areas south of the Border could do to address these problems themselves.

Alex Orr

Leamington Terrace

Edinburgh