Bottleneck
Thirsty residents queue as taps run dry Rain on way but ground too parched
TAPS ran dry in hundreds of households yesterday on the second day of an official drought in many parts of parched England.
Residents of Cranleigh, Dorking and Horsham in Surrey were forced to queue for bottled water in 33C heat after a fault at Thames Water’s Netley Mill water treatment Works.
Thirsty residents, often unable to flush the toilet or wash, were rationed to two 2-litre bottles of water.
Shelves at local supermarkets were empty of bottles after panic buying.
Manor Farm in the village of Wotton warned that their cows could try to break out of fields in search of water if the problem isn’t sorted out.
Former Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers and England footballer Graeme Le Saux, who lives in Surrey, accused local MP Jeremy Hunt of a PR stunt after the former Health Secretary tweeted a picture of him with Thames Water boss Sarah Bentley, who earns £2million a year in pay and bonuses. Le Saux, 53, tweeted: “While people suffer, you happily support mismanaged vital infrastructure. There is no bottled water at the pick-up points, they’ve already run out.”
The chaos comes after a drought was declared in eight out of 14 regions of England on Friday.
Southern England recorded its driest July since
1835 and restrictions on water use could last into next year.
Baked
Long-awaited rain is set to fall across the UK from this evening with amber heat warnings being replaced by yellow thunderstorm alerts, beginning in parts of the North of England,
Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Warnings of flash flooding from tomorrow for homes and businesses have been issued as heavy rain will struggle to drain effectively on scorched earth.
Dr Helen Griffith, environmental hazards researcher at Reading university, said the rainfall is too little too late to bring Britain out of the drought. She said: “Drought doesn’t happen overnight. It takes months and months of below average rainfall. One week of thunderstorms will not make a meaningful difference.
“The heavy rain will also not be able to permeate the baked earth to make it into groundwater and ultimately our reservoirs.” Experts have warned that droughts will only become more frequent with climate change and the Government and water companies need to build more capacity and guard against leaks. Dr Griffith added: “Water will be a new currency. We’ll also see a real west-to-east divide in the country about who has the water resources with the West having far more rainfall.”
The GMB union, which represents workers in the water industry, has criticised the companies for not investing in new infrastructure and reservoirs.
But a senior industry source said plans for new reservoirs and water transport systems have often been rejected by Government due to local opposition.
Thames Water told customers: “We’re very sorry if you have no water or low pressure due to the technical issues at Netley Mill Water Treatment Works.
Crisis
“Fixing this hasn’t been straightforward, but our engineers are working hard and making progress.”
Jim Mcmahon, Shadow Secretary of state for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: “This crisis in our system was entirely predictable.
“The Government and water companies should have anticipated and planned for it. In a country with plenty of rain outside of mid-summer, we should not need to rely on hosepipe bans to get us through the dry months.”
The Met Office said temperatures are expected to peak at 36C today and the weather will turn humid.