As we face a drought, are water companies right to call for a hosepipe ban?
SO WE may face a drought because of a lack of rainfall. What do the water firms do other than call for a hosepipe ban? For years climatologists have been warning about climate change. But our privatised water companies do nothing other than raise prices. Leaks go unattended and expensive desalination plants aren’t considered because the firms’ only concern is their shareholders.
COLIN GRIMMER, Lowestoft, Suffolk.
WHY wasn’t the heatwave of 1976 a watershed moment in the way we manage water? We have seen the awful damage from floods, with people losing their houses.
Why don’t we have a national water grid channelling supplies to all areas of the country when needed? how many reservoirs have we built since 1976? When was our last hydro-electric dam built? We are surrounded by water, but how much has been invested in desalination plants and harnessing tidal power? Instead, water companies still get away with discharging waste into streams and rivers.
PETER DONOGHUE, Richmond, Surrey.
WHILE the South and
South-East of the country suffer droughts, the North-West and Scotland have plenty of rain. That’s why we need a national water grid.
RON BARNES, King’s Lynn, Norfolk.
WE HAVE winter floods and summer droughts. If flood water was channelled into reservoirs and stored for future use, both problems could be solved.
ANITA O’TOOLE, BIRMINGHAM.
WATER is a precious commodity so the number of leaks by water companies is a disgrace, as is the practice of releasing raw sewage into our rivers. They need to put their house in order before lecturing customers on having shorter showers to save water.
Bryan Hanson, shipley, W. yorks.
IN CYPRUS, rainfall can be variable and water is seen as a precious commodity. We make the most of it by using the water from the shower to flush toilets and never allowing a tap to run without collecting the water.
GEORGIOU PARASKEVA, Paphos, cyprus.
THE country needs at least five new reservoirs to secure our water supply.
GERALD A. NORDEN, knutsford, cheshire.
WE DON’T need any more reservoirs — we need to dredge the silt from the existing ones.
B. WATERS, London n15.
THE last reservoir for drinking water was built in 1992. Since then, some five million houses have been built. How can taking a shorter shower or turning off the tap when brushing our teeth save enough water for this huge rise in demand?
ANDY NORRIS, Birmingham.
INSTEAD of HS2 — which no one wants — we should invest in offshore desalination plants to prevent the predicted water shortages.
IAN FULLER, Harrogate, n. yorks.
WHY are we facing hosepipe bans when no effort is made to harness and store the millions of gallons of floodwater every winter?
LESLEY MOULD, east Garston, Berks.
CALLS to conserve water by having shorter showers don’t worry me in the slightest. When I was a child, all five members of my family shared the same water in a tin bath.
G.J. CROSS, isleworth, middlesex.