Well, when you South-easterners are doing your Lawrence of Arabia impersonations, crawling round a parched dust bowl of a countryside looking for water, you'll be glad to hear that up in the North we have LOADS of water !!
Tell you what..........send us some jobs and we'll send you some water.
John & Shel
:thumbup:
Until they can show they have stopped up all their leaks and minimised waste I don't think the water should go anywhere near.
Councils permitting building of houses and industry where there is already a limited water supply should be firmly slapped and made to establish proper supplies first.
Suffolk Broads and The Thames FFS? How much water do these southerners want? I might let Norfolk have a bit seeing as they're verging Midlands, but Suffolk can fook right off.
Anyways, they're having none of mine. I send all our rain westwards so we can get some sun and take the piss out of Mancunians.
i think it is about time southern water stopped paying huge dividends to there share holders, and invested those huge amounts of money in getting water from the north to the south.
if firms can build the channel tunnel and all the engineering skills involved with that, putting some large pipes into the ground and a way of pumping the water into the reservoirs in the south, should be as easy as southern water counting there profits every yeer.
i get tired of reeding about hose pipe bans almost every yeer, while southern water continue to announce yeer on yeer profits. in the south very little water and yet 100 milers away from london loads of water. the water companies have the know how to do this, but do not want to spend the money on the investment. it reely is as simple as that. reward the shareholders and fuck the peeple who pay there water bills every yeer off out of it. :twisted: the same as the enery companies do as well. as the gas companies announce vast profits yet i have just had my latest gas bill in, and yet another rise.
this just sums up southern waters greed and great with ideas of making peeple pay more, but no mention of investment to get water down south. pure greed.
" Southern Water's pre-tax profits last year totalled £149 million, a near 50 per cent improvement on the year before when it was hit by a £20 million fine for poor customer service and deliberately misreporting information to the regulator in a period leading up to October 2005".
disgusting.
Let us not forget the rivers, there inhabitants and the keepers at such times as these, it is not all about us!
Riverkeeper Chris de Cani writes: The warnings over possible drought restrictions came as no surprise to those charged with caring for the Chalkstreams in the South of England. Successive dry winters have left groundwater chronically unreplenished and the springs that feed these unique rivers at their lowest level in recent memory. Crystal clear and void of any cover in the winter months, the rivers’ fish stocks are particularly vulnerable to predation.
Last summer’s fishing throughout much of the Chalkstreams was affected by low water with weed left uncut to preserve water levels. Filamentous algae bloomed in the summer months smothering Ranunculus and Water Celery both of which play a vital role in the Chalkstream habitat. This winter has seen just over half the average rainfall for the region, when double the average is required, fish have been rescued from one site on the upper reaches of the Kennet and several lakes in the area are making plans to move stock.
The Government’s concern over water supplies in the South is welcome, but groundwater levels in parts of the region have been low for some while and an earlier, more considered response would have been welcome; topping up reservoirs with river and ground water may provide a short term solution to supply, but will impact further on the already depleted flows of the rivers in the South. As climate appears to change, and the South becomes more akin to the climes of Central France, fancy fizzy wine production in the UK is not the only change creeping our way. The tributaries of the Loire, the main drain of Central France, have been down to their bare bones for three years and the current dearth of water may be something that the south of England experiences more often in the coming years.
Long term planning for water supply in the South East is urgently required. Reservoirs and lakes in the north of the country are full so perhaps plans for a national grid should be revisited and opportunities for desalination of sea water abound on an island nation. The cost to the consumer in the South East would increase but may also make us all a little more “water wise” For the coming Trout fishing season, keepers on the Southern Chalkstreams are resigned to another summer of low flows unless six months of rain falls in six days. A wise old keeper from the middle valley reckons that we have had a wet enough winter when he can’t drive his 4x4 around on the water meadows. Should I be so inclined, I could totter around these water meadows in my wife’s six inch heels without sinking in, the ground is that hard! we need rain, rain and more rain in these parts, as has been the case for much of the past two years and not just the last couple of weeks.
Chris de Cani Has been a Riverkeeper in the Test Valley for 25 years, 20 of them on the River Dever at Bransbury Mill. He also looks after a stretch of the River Itchen and writes ?
Sharing a shower is also a fantastic way to save water. Anyone fancy a scrub?
And with water company's planing to take water from the rivers to top up reservoirs, things will only get worse for the wildlife.
From a newspaper article today.
Only a modest drop in rainfall led to the collapse of the classic Maya civilisation more than 1,100 years ago, a new study has found.
The demise of the civilisation, centred on present day Mexico and Guatemala, was sudden and has intrigued archaeologists for many years with theories of the collapse around 950AD blamed on social unrest, disease and extreme drought.
But the study has calculated for the first time just how much rain was lost and discovered that only a 25 to 40% drop was enough to help lead to the collapse of the sophisticated society of accomplished architects and mathematicians that flourished for around 600 years.
The research was led by Professors Martin Medina-Elizalde of the Yucatan Centre for Scientific Research in Mexico and Eelco Rohling of the University of Southampton.
Professor Rohling said: "Our results show rather modest rainfall reductions between times when the Classic Maya Civilisation flourished and its collapse - between AD 800-950.
"These reductions amount to only 25 to 40% in annual rainfall. But they were large enough for evaporation to become dominant over rainfall, and open water availability was rapidly reduced. The data suggest that the main cause was a decrease in summer storm activity."
The study combined records of past climate changes from stalagmites and shallow lakes to model 40% reductions in summer rainfall and reduced tropical storm activity over the region.
Professor Medina-Elizalde added: "For more than a century, researchers have related the demise of the Classic Maya civilisation to climate change, and especially to drought. No sound estimates had been made about the severity of this drought, but some have suggested extreme scenarios.
"New data made it possible to finally get detailed estimates. To do this, we developed a model that coherently explains changes in critical datasets of change in the region's balance between evaporation and rainfall."
Professor Rohling explained such modest rainfall reductions would have caused the disintegration of a well-established civilisation.
"Summer was the main season for cultivation and replenishment of Mayan freshwater storage systems and there are no rivers in the Yucatan lowlands. Societal disruptions and abandonment of cities are likely consequences of critical water shortages, especially because there seems to have been a rapid repetition of multi-year droughts," he said
The scientists also note that the reconstructed droughts during the demise of the Classic Maya Civilisation were of similar severity as those projected in the near future in the same region.
"There are differences too, but the warning is clear. What seems like a minor reduction in water availability may lead to important, long-lasting problems.
"This problem is not unique to the Yucatan Peninsula, but applies to all regions in similar settings where evaporation is high. Today, we have the benefit of awareness, and we should act accordingly," explained Prof Medina-Elizalde.
The work, published in the leading journal Science, was funded by the UK's Natural Environment Research Council.
John
:rotflmao:
