icowden
Pharaoh
Seawater conversion isn't great. It's very expensive and inefficient. We have plenty of water in the winter. We need to get better at storing it. He'd be better off heavily penalising the water companies for leaks.
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Seawater conversion isn't great. It's very expensive and inefficient. We have plenty of water in the winter. We need to get better at storing it. He'd be better off heavily penalising the water companies for leaks.
briantrumpet
Timewaster
Coincidence that not a single reservoir has been built since privatisation?
Pross
Guru
First new one in 30 years is being built in Hampshire. They’re even more controversial at planning than the likes of wind or solar farms though and full on NIMBY targets, everyone wants water but would much rather a remote Welsh farming village gets flooded so they can have it.
briantrumpet
Timewaster
It's probably why the two of the new biggies (Roadford and Colliford) in Devon and Cornwall hardly ever fill up, as they have virtually no 'natural' supplies... I suspect that they were sited where they are a sites of least resistance rather than best catchment. Still, we'd be stuffed without them (and Wimbleball) – all the others are teensy weensy.
Dorset Boy
Senior Member
They require particular geology too so that the water doesn't just seep away, as well as needing a river to fill them. Rainwater alone will not fill a resevoir.
As with australia, if we continue to get summers like this one, evaporation loss becomes an issue, so do you try to put them underground in some way? Do floating solar panels help prevent evaporation loss.
As with australia, if we continue to get summers like this one, evaporation loss becomes an issue, so do you try to put them underground in some way? Do floating solar panels help prevent evaporation loss.
Pblakeney
Squire
Good idea in bold there. I was recently at Lake Garda and you couldn't see across the water between 10:00 and 18:00 due to evaporation.
Recently heard a story where a village was evacuated for a reservoir. The water just seeps away and has never reached the level of the village.
icowden
Pharaoh
I think they do. The Queen Elizabeth Reservoir next to me has a floating solar array. Apparently floating solar can reduce evaporation loss by between 50% and 80% which isn't too shabby.
Some reservoirs are used for boating / sailing though so you can't do it on all of them without upsetting the Quentins and Tillies of this world!
Psamathe
Legendary Member
Pross
Guru
I ran past my local reservoir on Sunday and have never seen it so low, it was quite a stark drop from when I went past in late April. There is also a stream through the fields where I walk the dog that I've passed most days in the last 20 years and Sunday was the first time I've seen it completely dry.
Interestingly, I read something recently about why people always bang on about 1976 and especially those who like to cite it as an example that 'we've always had summers like this'. Apparently, we'd had a few dry years and therefore the water reserves were already low and so whilst it was an unusually warm and dry summer we were starting from a low level of reserves. This year we went into spring with water levels at normal levels following a wet winter. However, the other reason is that was the only year between something like 1958 and 1990 where temepratures exceeded 35 degrees so it was very obviously different (growing up in the 1980s I can recall anything over 25 degrees feeling pretty unusual). We have had days exceeding 35 degrees 10 times so far this century and 7 in the last 11 years. I really struggle to understand how people are still claiming 'it's just summer' and that climate change isn't a thing.
Interestingly, I read something recently about why people always bang on about 1976 and especially those who like to cite it as an example that 'we've always had summers like this'. Apparently, we'd had a few dry years and therefore the water reserves were already low and so whilst it was an unusually warm and dry summer we were starting from a low level of reserves. This year we went into spring with water levels at normal levels following a wet winter. However, the other reason is that was the only year between something like 1958 and 1990 where temepratures exceeded 35 degrees so it was very obviously different (growing up in the 1980s I can recall anything over 25 degrees feeling pretty unusual). We have had days exceeding 35 degrees 10 times so far this century and 7 in the last 11 years. I really struggle to understand how people are still claiming 'it's just summer' and that climate change isn't a thing.
Pross
Guru
Yep, it's scandalous - on the same run mentioned above on Sunday I was running up a hill that appeared to have a stream running down it and last year in the fields where that stream is I was surprised to see what I thought was a natural spring I'd never noticed that was pouring water even after we'd been into the dry spell for a month or two. It turned out to be a leaking pipe that was eventually fixed but you could see a green stretch of field all summer where the water had run whilst the rest went brown. At least it served some kind of benefit in that case. It's hard to tell people not to put a hose on their plants when the water companies are continuing wasting that level of water especially as the plants are doing their bit to help.
Dorset Boy
Senior Member
Quentins and Tillies don't go dinghy sailing.....
Ordinary folk tend to sail dinghies on reservoirs. The posh lot go to their yachts in Cowes, Lymington or the Med.
Dorset Boy
Senior Member
Three really wet winters on the trot, and we had over 3 times the average rainfall this January (and it rained on 42 consecutive days from NYE), to not having have more than the odd drop in 8 weeks here!
I suspect overall annual rainfall will be average, so conservation and storage have to become priorities moving forwards.
I suspect overall annual rainfall will be average, so conservation and storage have to become priorities moving forwards.
Pross
Guru
And just sit on them drinking gin or Pimms (or maybe 'sail' them using the motor to a local beach inaccesible to the rabble). Sailing on my local reservoir is ridiculously cheap but always gets tarred with that image unfortunately.
BoldonLad
Old man on a bike. Not a member of a clique.
- Location
- South Tyneside
Also, a bit difficult to use it on Kielder Water, I would guess. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kielder_Water.
Why can't we move water around the Country in a sort of "water grid"? I believe the Romans managed it.
Pblakeney
Squire
Bloody Romans. What did they ever do for us?
