Drought....What Drought?

[nivrip]

Managed a short moors walk yesterday. It didn't rain all day.

I have never seen so much water ! The streams were swollen, the rivers bursting their banks and there were new streams all over the hillsides. Good thing I have waterproof boots.

I called in at two of our local small resevoirs which were, of course, full to overflowing. The overflows were like torrents.

I had one of my daughters along and this shows a tiny stream near one of the reservoirs. Normally it would be a small trickle, about 15 to 20 cm across at the most.

DROUGHT?

 

[Anon_F]

In the North where it gets more rain it is less populated than in the South.
And demand for water is higher, In my local area, say 5 miles, over 10k of houses have been built in last 10 yrs. Hence the demand has soared for the wet stuff.

And with more development of properties going on in London & the South East the situation is going to get worse. The 3 main London Mayoral candidates stated on local tv the other night they would build another 50-75k of new houses over a 5 year period, hence resources like water will be stretched even more.

Their ends my rant, off the soap box & over to you!

 

[Taffycat]

Very nice photo Niv.

Yes, so many new buildings have a great impact on the water table. Rainwater can't naturally soak away on ground that's been covered in concrete and tarmac. Natural flood-planes have been built upon, so that excess river-water has nowhere to go... hence some of the flash flooding that occurs.

Local Authorities are pressured to grant building permission for ever more housing - plus the supermarkets and other amenities which are then needed. I think the end result is that these permissions are granted inappropriately. There doesn't seem to be much of a "balance" any more, so that one area might be suffering floods, whilst another is told they're experiencing drought conditions...

 

[EvanDavis]

Local Authorities are pressured to grant building permission for ever more housing - plus the supermarkets and other amenities which are then needed. I think the end result is that these permissions are granted inappropriately..

Gotta agree with that, where I live there is a big Sainsbury, then half a mile up the road is a Sainsbury metro, and out on my walk I noticed yet half a mile from the Sainsbury Metro they are now building another Sainsbury Metro. I mean is there really any need for 3 within a mile of each other. And as for the housing going up around the Olympic park. Well a lot of it seems to be complete, but I don't see anybody moving into it, same goes for all the new shops been built, they just seem to be standing empty. And then there is the new Westfield shoping center in stratford. Shops are already closing down in there.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Would agree too much building going on in this neck of the woods, the view from my balcony/patio is now probably about 20% less than it was when I moved in 4 years ago. Any small patch of waste land is fair game for ten storeys, it seems. It's almost suffocating.

Which may or may not be deemed hypocritical of me as I moved into a new six storey building. Hmm.

And with the housing, of course, comes the demand for utilities, including water.