How do we get droughts?

dirtydog · 25 Feb 2006 at 08:49

Werewolf said:
From memory heavy rain over a short period of time is not as good as lighter rain over a prolonged period of time.

The reason is that heavy rain tends not to have time to settle into the ground (see my comment about floodplains), and tends to largely go straight back out to sea etc.

Lighter rain over a longer period has a chance to soak into the ground and get absorbed, thus working it's way into the water table.

This is correct

Also as VIRII said, demand has been steadily rising for years but the supply has not kept pace. Of course the water companies cannot make it rain more, but they could increase the supply of reservoirs and upgrade their infrastructure to reduce leakage (which they are apparently doing). Demand for water - and enegry - is high and supply is tight, which is why it's so expensive. This is one of the things that people who advocate mass immigration don't always consider... if you add millions of extra people into the country then they all need water and power. Our population has been rising for years and is set to go on rising sharply.

Zip · 25 Feb 2006 at 08:54

If you do get a drought there will be a good chance you will get water restrictions.

Low flow shower heads anyone

We have been in a drought down here for 2 years now even though we have had some floods.

Chronos-X · 25 Feb 2006 at 09:00

dirtydog · 25 Feb 2006 at 09:02

Erm...

Trigger · 25 Feb 2006 at 09:05

Chronos-X said:
http://www.handmadecrafts.co.uk/tonysinnett/draughts/images_large/draughtsboard_l1.jpg[img][/QUOTE]

WTF? :confused:

EDIT: And that image looks hotlinked to me... :eek:

Wyrdo · 25 Feb 2006 at 09:15

That's draughts you numpty

naefeart · 25 Feb 2006 at 09:20

Crestfallen said:
6. The culture in this country - as far as water usage goes - is far more 'wastefull' than on the continent, added to the higher population density we use an awful lot more clean water than a nation such as the french. ...

Well the French don't bathe, so naturally we are going to use more clean water.

oweneades · 25 Feb 2006 at 09:30

Hmmm I can understand where people are coming from with the water infrastructure and everything but still over 70% of this planet is water. Ships have way of turning salt water into fresh water so can't we just have a very big version of that in places around the country. I can understand cost being a factor but its not as if we can go without the stuff. That and we pay enough for it anyway.

Visage · 25 Feb 2006 at 09:44

Crestfallen said:
Thoughts on this in no particular order...

1. Desalination is prohibitively expensive, so we're still rather dependant on the stuff that falls from the sky.

2. All the Water companies got privatised a while back and so, despite being 'utilities', put shareholders' profit before infrastructure/sustainability/staff.

3. To combat this trend Offwatt was created. Ofwatt dictates how much a water company can spend/charge it's customers, and if a company breaks the rules (puts too much **** in the rivers, over-abstracts a water source, ignores customer complaints etc) it fines the company or further limits how much it is allowed to charge - thus creating a viscious circle.

4. When many of the companies were privatised they were sumarily asset-stripped for a quick profit, and are now paying for services they used to own.

5. We have had 3 dry summers and winters in a row. For a major reservoir like Bewl (Sussex/Kent) to recover it's levels we needed 25% above average rainfall for the past six months - this hasn't happened.

6. The culture in this country - as far as water usage goes - is far more 'wastefull' than on the continent, added to the higher population density we use an awful lot more clean water than a nation such as the french. This is something that isn't going to change until everyones usage is metered, which requires investment, which isn't going to happen any time soon.

The bottom line is that we have all (government and Water Companies included) been taking our water supplies for granted.

I'd add to that the British disease of demanding things that cost money, but getting up in arms when costs rise to pay for it. See also policing, the NHS, education etc....

VIRII · 25 Feb 2006 at 09:53

Stiff_Cookie said:
What actually qualifies an areas as suffering a drought because I think it would have to not rain for a long time before the UK had a dought.

I am not sure what constitutes a drought but we seem to use the term here to signify a shortage and we do indeed have a significant shortage in our reservoirs in the South East corner of the UK.

I did some work with a tree planting charity recently and they told us that in 50 years there would be no Beech trees left in the southeast becauseof climate change/rainfall issues. That is pretty shocking really.

VIRII · 25 Feb 2006 at 09:57

Crestfallen said:
Thoughts on this in no particular order...

2. All the Water companies got privatised a while back and so, despite being 'utilities', put shareholders' profit before infrastructure/sustainability/staff.
.

Like the railways the Govt sold off a massively inefficient system with 150 year old infrastructure because it did not want to invest the needed monies.

Crestfallen said:
4. When many of the companies were privatised they were sumarily asset-stripped for a quick profit, and are now paying for services they used to own.
.

Asset stripped ? 150 year old pipework is a liability not an asset.

Crestfallen said:
The bottom line is that we have all (government and Water Companies included) been taking our water supplies for granted.

Very true.

The Running Man · 25 Feb 2006 at 09:59

u should live up north, no sign of a drought. we are getting loads of rain every day. its like living in a world of pain. dont recommend it to anyone.

Third Opinion · 25 Feb 2006 at 10:00

Years of under investment yet again. More people moving South, more house building and increasing population. Have they compensated for this? It rains loads in this country just not in the areas people live in. They need to pipe in water from these areas but I think we all know why they wont.

VeNT · 25 Feb 2006 at 10:10

they dug up our road this month
changed the pipes all the way along

pitty the leaks are round the corner

atpbx · 25 Feb 2006 at 10:39

Elston said:
Hence why you now find crops being grown down there that was never possible before. Look at kents wine industry and orchards.

Lies.
What have the romans ever done for us etc etc etc.

D.P. · 25 Feb 2006 at 10:41

Gilly said:
We're being told by the Met office that we should steel ourselves for the worst drought in decades.

We're an island and we get a lot of rainfall. If you don't believe me go to Manchester. We have springs, rivers, streams, lakes, a solid (or liquid ) water table beneath us.

What exactly is going on when we're told we should be ready for the hosepipe bans again? Does anyone else feel it makes a bit of a mockery of our water system?

I'm hoping we have someone here with a vast knowledge on the subject, I've never been let down before.

Large parts of the SE UK have very little rainfall actually, drier than many parts of the Med. Parts of he E have under 500mm of ain in a normal year, now a dessert has under 200mm by definition. When you get a dry period with 50% average rainfall then the rainfall total edges very close to being classified as dessert climate!

Plus the fact that the overcrowding of the SE means water is a very scarce commodity down there. .

The othger factor is the recent years have been incredibly dry on average so the reeservoirs just don't have a chance to fill up.

Crestfallen · 25 Feb 2006 at 11:09

VIRII said:
Asset stripped ? 150 year old pipework is a liability not an asset.

It's not the pipework I'm thinking of, more the Site-Maintenance, IT Services and New Construction work, etc.
These sort of things, which used to be done in-house were outsourced or flogged off as seperate businesses and now have to be sub-contracted back whenever any work needs to be done.

It used to be that if a Water company needed a new Works they had all the skills required to do it. Now you need one company to dig holes, another to fit the pumps and equipment, a third to wire it all together and install a controll system, a different one to write the software for that system and at least one more to provide the Telemetry. Then the Water Company merely comes along and tests it.

The people doing the work are invariably the same people who used to work for the Water Board, but now there is a raft of Project Managers, Accountants and Admin staff for each sub-contractor to be paid for as well. Not to mention the Kafkaesque nightmare of trying to get all these disparate entities to work in unity.

Anyway, this is getting slightly Off-topic.
@ Gilly - The reason there is going to be a drought is because you are all sinners.

Le_Petit_Lapin · 25 Feb 2006 at 11:11

Urgh....its hardly going to be a major problem. Oh no! You wont be able to use your hose in the garden.....its not exactly life threatening.

Move to Africia or something to see how bad a drought can really get.

conundrum · 25 Feb 2006 at 11:16

I believe in all seriousness that Europe is experiencing a issue due to so called rain bands and fronts move and hence rain falls in the wrong places. Mountains and hills almost guarantee rain through relief rainfall but in the south there are no hills or mountains and hence they get less rain anyways. East Anglia gets a similar rainfall to Israel I believe.

Crestfallen · 25 Feb 2006 at 11:17

Le_Petit_Lapin said:
Urgh....its hardly going to be a major problem. Oh no! You wont be able to use your hose in the garden.....its not exactly life threatening.

Move to Africia or something to see how bad a drought can really get.

Unfortunately this time it is going to be a major problem. There is already a hosepipe ban in the South-east, and has been for some time (not that people have been paying any attention). This summer/autumn there is going to be a situation more akin to No Water, rather than just usage restrictions. That will start to get life threatening.