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Mass crop failures expected in England as farmers demand hosepipe bans
- groffee 4y agoIt's literally an island, surrounded by water. Why aren't water companies legally obliged to - you know - actually get water from the sea instead of the average joe being punished.
- gardenfelder 4y agoCurious: are you suggesting that sea water can be used on crops? If so, how?
- roey2009 4y agoWater treatment. Like in Israel. Am aware that Israel is a wealthy country, but isn't the UK the same?
- zeristor 4y agoOne wouldn’t use desalination water to water crops, it wouldn’t be economically viable. I believe the Beckton Desalination plant has been in the process of being commissioned for 12 years or so for some reason: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Gateway_Water_Treatment_Works https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Gateway_Water_Treatment... However it does seem to use a lot of electricity, which currently isn’t cheap. Something to do with the price of gas, and indeed reduced water levels for many power stations impinging on their running.
- nonrandomstring 4y agoThe water situation in Britain is fairly easy to understand. In the 1970s we had an over-capacity of reservoirs. In the 80's Thatcher privatised the water companies. Those companies then sold off the land for housing estates that are now on flood plains and at high risk. We no longer have reservoir capacity to meet demand. Additionally we have thousands of houses that cannot be insured. The whole shitshow is a consequence of short-term thinking and greedy profiteering. At some point we (the taxpayers) will have to buy back (compulsory purchase) the housing estates where nobody wants to live any more to turn them back into reservoirs.