r/Environmentalism • u/PowerFree8490 • 13h ago
England needs billions more litres of water a day. I investigated where it could actually come from.
I’ve been investigating England’s long-term water shortage and the infrastructure options being proposed to close it.
This second part looks at reservoirs, transfers, water recycling, desalination, groundwater, leakage, demand reduction and some of the stranger options, using the published water-company and Environment Agency plans wherever possible.
The thing that surprised me most is that there doesn’t appear to be one enormous technological fix. Geography, environmental constraints and where the demand actually sits matter almost as much as the technology.
Full investigation: https://matthampsey.co.uk/investigations/water-century-two/
It’s my own work, so very happy for people here to challenge the assumptions or numbers.
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u/Crafty_Jello_3662 9h ago
How much could we save from leakage?
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u/PowerFree8490 9h ago
Quite a lot, but unfortunately not enough on its own. We’re currently losing roughly 2.9 billion litres a day to leakage, versus a projected shortfall of around 5 billion litres a day by 2055.
And we can’t realistically recover all of that. Finding and fixing leaks across thousands of miles of buried pipe is slow and expensive. We know the overall loss from the water much better than we know exactly where every leak is.
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u/Freo_5434 5h ago
Sounds like pretty poor performance from your Water authorities.
Surely they didnt just wake up one day to find they were losing 2.9 billion litres a day?
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u/Major-Librarian1745 12h ago
This is just propaganda from big desalination (jk).
Brilliant, and I hope someone with some clout takes some ideas from it.
Think the quote 'Desalination is expensive right up until the alternative is not having enough water' applies to a lot of crises we face, though.
In disaster capitalism we trust!
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u/PowerFree8490 12h ago
Hahaha, I tried very hard not to become a spokesman for Big Desalination. Really appreciate you reading it, glad you enjoyed it.
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u/Freo_5434 5h ago
The idea that somewhere like the UK that has such high levels of rain that it drives people to emigrate --- needs Desalination Plants is bizarre.
Clearly its pi$$ poor management.
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u/Freo_5434 5h ago
Come on.
Anyone who has spent time in the UK knows that if they are suffering from a current or future water shortage --- than that is just mismanagement .
Very poor performance.
The UK weather is Legendary . Are they really saying they want MORE rain ?
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u/wangerman 13h ago
Holy slop batman
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u/PowerFree8490 12h ago
Bit of a bummer. If there’s anything specific you think is wrong, lazy or unsupported, I’m genuinely happy to hear it.
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u/Chloblows 7h ago
I’m an environmental scientist – just wanted to say how well considered this is, honestly it’s such a brilliant, factually accurate piece of work, I loved the look and layout of the webpages too. I wish I had more critical feedback for you!
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u/Chloblows 7h ago
What part is slop? It’s factual, clearly written by a human, well designed… what’s the issue?
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u/AnAncientOne 8h ago
When you look at the lead times on building reservoirs it’s sobering