Wet'n'Dry

TruckerT

Next time your sloping garden is bone-dry, try emptying a watering can over it and see whether or not the water soaks in or whether it runs off down the slope

Dry earth does not become like concrete, it becomes like a dry sponge, and water will only run off when the earth is saturated. In East Anglia, where the drought first started, there ain't exactly a lot of sloping land anyway - it's flat!

In any case, after a record-breaking April, there is not a square metre of dry earth left in the land, so please will the experts please stop telling us that all this rain is simply running off into the rivers

TruckerT

michaels

Clay here so it does run off (although really dry and cracked I guess it might run off less?)

chewmylegoff

What have you taken this time trucker?

TruckerT

michaels wrote: »

Clay here so it does run off (although really dry and cracked I guess it might run off less?)

That's what I mean - water does not run off dry earth. Clay cracks open, whilst loamy soil crumbles, but the effect is the same

TruckerT

Loughton_Monkey

TruckerT wrote: »

In any case, after a record-breaking April, there is not a square metre of dry earth left in the land, so please will the experts please stop telling us that all this rain is simply running off into the rivers.

Apart from an extremely few households (I'm guessing), every litre of water we use from our taps has to be handled and purified by the Water Companies. In turn, they gather the water from numerous sources, and store it in towers and reservoirs etc.

So what are these muppets doing? Unlike their colleagues in Electricity and Gas, they are simply not 'producing' enough water for us. Their own bonuses and super-pay packets have taken priority over true investment in the infrastructure needed to meet demand.

They have failed to anticipate the incredible population explosions here, coupled with trends toward more baths/showers, dishwashers, Karcher power washers, more cars needing washing..........

I resent paying £670 a year to keep these wasters in high salaries, index linked pensions, only to tell me I can't wash my car, water my garden, and to blame me for wasting water. Unlike electricity or gas, the water I use dutifully goes back to them one way or another. They're just too idle to 'harvest' it.

LydiaJ

What sort of infrastructure do you have in mind?

TruckerT

LydiaJ wrote: »

What sort of infrastructure do you have in mind?

For 'infrastructure', I would read 'pipes' - it ain't rocket science!

On PM tonight, an expert was confronted with some listeners' ideas. Unsurprisingly, all were instantly consigned to the bin.

End of story

Water, more than anything else, guarantees life, but try telling that to an 'expert'

truckerT

LydiaJ

Considering that we are using up the ancient water in our aquifers faster than rainfall can replenish them, and damaging the ecosystems of our rivers by extracting too much water from them, pipes (although useful) may not be enough. Desalination plants would help, but they're not cheap.

The SE of England gets less rainfall per head of population than the Sudan. There's more rainfall in the N and W, of course, but even that won't supply us for ever if we keep on and on increasing our consumption.

TruckerT

100 years ago, Birmingham Council ran a pipeline from Mid-Wales to Birmingham (fed by gravity) and it still exists today

So what is the problem?

The money is there in abundance, and so is the technology

But the profit is not short-term, so nobody cares

TruckerT