Which would you choose: A drought or a downpour?

WHEN I lived in Israel as a foreign worker I was struck by the dryness of the climate, with up to ten months of the year being completely dry and all the rainfall in one short abundant wet season with, hopefully, enough rain to last another year.

The contrast on how rain was perceived there compared to here in these islands was extreme.

Coming closer to the winter rains the Israeli weather forecasts on television would daily state: ‘Hopefully, tomorrow we will have some rain.’ Then I would switch over to BBC World Service where the weather forecaster would being saying ‘hopefully, tomorrow there will be no rain’.

One culture welcomed the rain, where another resented it, usually calling a day with rain as an ‘awful day’ or ‘terrible weather,’ whereas the Israelis were dancing on the rooftops when the rain finally came.

In the Bible periods of drought were perceived as a punishment from God and rain was always seen as a blessing, not the other way round.

We are very blessed in our climate to have adequate rainfall yet so many people only complain about it. COLIN NEVIN, Bangor, Co. Down.

Water carry on

I was shocked by Brenda Power’s column (Irish Daily Mail, June 26). The headline read: ‘I refuse to feel guilty for watering my plants. After all, I tried to pay for my water but they sent my money back!’

If something is not available then paying for it will not magically create it. When there is no bread in a shop then regardless of what I can pay for it will not produce it.

Brenda seems to think that paying executives large salaries and giving them generous allowances and cars as well as paying an army of officials will solve the water scarcity problem. This just compounds the problem.

The money goes into the wrong hands. Tell them, Brenda, to fix the leaks and find other solutions. I have a grey water system and dual flush toilets.

Brenda refuses to feel guilty for watering plants because she wanted to pay for water but they wouldn’t let her. Does that mean that she would feel guilty if they had accepted her money? Or would she and many others then feel more free to use water that’s not there because they have paid for it?

To start, I suggest that we scrap Irish Water and give the responsibility for water back to county councils and give them the necessary money to deal with water. Fix the leaks then, Brenda – we might not need your money, we would have it from savings. Paying is not the solution to all problems

PAT KEOGH, by email.

Border lines

LEO Varadkar once again insists there will be no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, and again he expresses disappointment that the UK government has still not suggested how that should be achieved.

However, a border has two sides, and in this case on one side is the EU and on the other the UK, yet the EU (and Leo) keep on insisting that it is the UK that must resolve the border issues.

In fairness, the UK has come up with several proposals, all of which were summarily rejected by the EU, which has not presented any proposals of its own at all. Yet he keeps criticising the UK and not the EU.

Of course, Leo is firmly on the side of the EU which, he insists, has Ireland’s interests at heart, and there I believe he is being very naïve indeed.

In reality, if there is a hard Brexit there will be a hard border because the EU will insist upon it. The UK will then simply ignore the whole issue and do nothing about it because it will not have to.

ANTHONY MANSER, Faithlegg, Co. Waterford.