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How can England possibly be running out of water?

theguardian.com

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Re: How can England possibly be running out of water?

#131

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

CommanderData wrote: post #48
bayarearefugee wrote: post #2

Don't worry about it. Just lower taxes on corporations and the wealthy and reduce regulations, the magic hand of the market will fix everything!!! :D

Consumer: upgrade our waterways please? hmm maybe don't dump raw sewage every day. Thames Water: pooposterous! we must pay bonuses, or it'll affect investor morale! Haven't you heard, your water is the best in the world, be happy :)

Thames Water: we need to raise bills to fund the infrastructure repair/upgrade

Consumer: grumble okay, here's our money

Thames Water: gives money to execs

Consumer: the infrastructure needs repair

Thames Water: we need to raise bills to fund the infrastructure repair/upgrade

Re: How can England possibly be running out of water?

#132

Post by zarzavat »

tome wrote: post #105
seanalltogether wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The concept of reservoirs and emergency supply seems to be completely at odds with privatisation. What private company is going to spend loads of money to build deep reservoirs that are stressed only once every 5 or 10 years. None. They're going to reach for an immediate supply like a river or aquifer and then raise prices if those sources run low. It's insane to plan out infrastructure on the belief that private com…

I'm inclined to agree that privatisation is bad for long term planning, but the history of the Abingdon Reservoir proposal seems to be counter evidence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abingdon_Reservoir Looks like Thames Water (a private company) proposed the development nearly 20 years ago, but it was turned down by the Environment Agency , a government body. > Plans for a £1bn reservoir in Oxfordshire to supply more…

Good find, I admit I had jumped on the Thames Water is Evil bandwagon, and for the record they are evil, but in this case they have been out-eviled by that other driver of British societal regression:

> Campaigners had fought the plan, claiming there was no need for such a large reservoir and that it would damage the environment.

> Leader of the Vale of White Horse Council Tony de Vere said: "We are delighted with this decision.

> "Local residents were very worried about the impact of such a large reservoir and we share their relief that the plan has been axed."

Re: How can England possibly be running out of water?

#134

Post by p1dda »

Beretta_Vexee wrote: post #112
brcmthrowaway wrote: post #21

Can't they get water from the ocean?

Desalinating water requires a lot of energy and equipment. Seawater must be tapped, filtered and passed through membranes in a process called reverse osmosis. All of this requires lot of electrical power, large pumps, cleaning, corrosion-resistant materials, etc. Desalination is generally the last resort when there are no other options. It is much simpler, more efficient and less expensive to properly manage freshwat…

It obviously doesn't work, desalination works.

Re: How can England possibly be running out of water?

#135

Post by p1dda »

KaiserPro wrote: post #96
littlecranky67 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Article is outdated (2008) and makes a single argument: Desalination requires too much energy. Becaues it is outdated, it doesn't account for the excess energy a lot of places and countries have from wind and solar. Water desalination is a prime candidate (along with Bitcoin mining and AI model training, sigh ) for using available excess energy from renewable that cannot be stored otherwise. Clean/drinking water can…

The UK also doesn't have enough power, well not enough to do whats needed for desalination. It would be _vastly_ cheaper and easier to build reservoirs.

Build new power plants genius

Re: How can England possibly be running out of water?

#136

Post by [deleted] »

sandbags wrote: post #34

As the article mentions, privatised water companies have built no new reservoir capacity and relied on drawing from rivers and other sources. What the article doesn’t mention is that pre-privatisation a new reservoir was built every year up to about 1960 and then every few years until privatisation in 1992. So we are about 30 years behind in adding capacity to the system. This combined with the inadequate levels of i…

[deleted]

Re: How can England possibly be running out of water?

#137

Post by [deleted] »

tome wrote: post #105
seanalltogether wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The concept of reservoirs and emergency supply seems to be completely at odds with privatisation. What private company is going to spend loads of money to build deep reservoirs that are stressed only once every 5 or 10 years. None. They're going to reach for an immediate supply like a river or aquifer and then raise prices if those sources run low. It's insane to plan out infrastructure on the belief that private com…

I'm inclined to agree that privatisation is bad for long term planning, but the history of the Abingdon Reservoir proposal seems to be counter evidence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abingdon_Reservoir Looks like Thames Water (a private company) proposed the development nearly 20 years ago, but it was turned down by the Environment Agency , a government body. > Plans for a £1bn reservoir in Oxfordshire to supply more…

[deleted]

Re: How can England possibly be running out of water?

#139

Post by blitzar »

zarzavat wrote: post #132
tome wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm inclined to agree that privatisation is bad for long term planning, but the history of the Abingdon Reservoir proposal seems to be counter evidence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abingdon_Reservoir Looks like Thames Water (a private company) proposed the development nearly 20 years ago, but it was turned down by the Environment Agency , a government body. > Plans for a £1bn reservoir in Oxfordshire to supply more…

Good find, I admit I had jumped on the Thames Water is Evil bandwagon, and for the record they are evil, but in this case they have been out-eviled by that other driver of British societal regression: > Campaigners had fought the plan, claiming there was no need for such a large reservoir and that it would damage the environment. > Leader of the Vale of White Horse Council Tony de Vere said: "We are delighted with th…

> Local residents were very worried about the impact of such a large reservoir

Was it the crocodiles or the immigrants in small boats in the reservoir they worried about most?

Re: How can England possibly be running out of water?

#140

Post by bilekas »

graemep wrote: post #120
sandbags wrote: post #34

As the article mentions, privatised water companies have built no new reservoir capacity and relied on drawing from rivers and other sources. What the article doesn’t mention is that pre-privatisation a new reservoir was built every year up to about 1960 and then every few years until privatisation in 1992. So we are about 30 years behind in adding capacity to the system. This combined with the inadequate levels of i…

> Water should never have been privatised. At least not without a framework for a national strategy for water. State ownership is not a panacea either. State owned Scottish Water has more sewer leaks than the privatised companies in England and Wales do.

The responsibility to look after the citizens basic needs such as water is on the government. Not private for-profit companies.

If they can't do their job, then we shouldn't pay our taxes ?

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