Letter: Store your own water
Many believe we are suffering a drought. This has been attributed to manmade global warming and, last week, by a councillor, to the concrete platforms on which windmills stand.
Many countries have a much drier climate than ours and this explains why many people travel regularly to those places to escape the rain for a week. Those places do not often claim drought conditions. It seems that in the UK, if it doesn't rain all the time there is a drought.
What then is the problem? It is that England is almost the most densely populated country on earth with a very rapidly expanding population?
More and more water is being used but extra storage to meet the needs of the population hasn't been made. So a drought is claimed because rainfall doesn't rise to meet the demand.
The lesson is to make adequate provision for the population.
Water is not made or destroyed. If you take water out of a river and use it, it remains in the country for a little longer than if it was allowed to continue directly to the sea. Wasting water is therefore a misnomer.
The only thing is that the water coming out of your tap has been piped through a treatment plant and you are charged for this. A lot.
You are also charged separately for taking rainwater away from your property. It's a free resource that lands on your roof. If your roof isn't connected to the water company pipe you avoid this charge.
Instead you can duct the water through water butts or storage tanks and finally into a soak away. Storing adequate water in this way is a sensible and cost effective provision.
Peter Keen
Babbinswood
