In the UK we have largely ignored
the drought warnings until they affect us directly. In an era where global
warming was starting to gain more recognition in the 1970’s and 1980’s – when fear
of drought hitting many countries in the richer northern hemisphere when in
fact we have been hit by quite the reverse and suffered some terrible floods, nationally
and internationally, with serious repercussions of many deaths, billions
(currency) in damages and communities decimated.
Many people feel helpless and
therefore ignore the potential flooding problems. Many people have no faith or trust that something can be done about floods and droughts. This is only natural human
reaction in this day and age, as we feel microscopic in the face of 7 billion
inhabitants. So perhaps a different perspective is offered through voluntary
efforts, building control and planning initiatives. Small steps do have
significant knock on effect and we can make strong steps individually and as a nationwide
collective.
For all the problems we suffer in
UK with flooding – make no mistake they could have been significantly worse. Due
to the past efforts of thousands of people planting trees (We all know that
symbiosis between trees and soils helps reduce flooding) and installing rain (water
collection) butts the flooding risks have been reduced somewhat. We can all
take this further forward! In hte UK there are over 200 000 homes who are at risk of not being able to get house/flood insurance due to being in high risk flood areas. With a national policy of water containment/re-use implemented we can help all these people and their homes.
The majority of UK, on a domestic
level, do make a concerted effort to turn dripping taps off, have showers
instead of baths, many believe their dishwashers use less water than cleaning
dishes in the sink. Yet as opposed to just ‘water-saving’ perhaps we should
additionally look at ‘water retention’.
Just to go slightly off topic …. Regardless
of heating source – hot water will remain in the pipes until it is demanded
again. If ALL hot water pipes in industry and domestic were super
lagged/insulated – we would save millions of litres of water and millions of
Megawatts of energy for heating, as there would be less time waiting for the
water to heat up (the still water in the pipes having lost its heat as it has
permeated through the un-insulated pipes) the taps are run continually before
it is an acceptable warmth level to the end user.
This is very evident of people
who rely upon older combi-boilers which heat up the water when you turn the
taps on….. it does take a long time for the water to heat up, so when you are
waiting for water to get hotter for sinks or showers – on a national scale (the
30-60 seconds we are waiting for the water to heat up) this results in millions
of litres of water being utterly wasted. New regulations have demanded
improvements in new combi-boiler efficiencies – so that is a positive step
forward.
High demand households such as
shared accommodation, offices, kitchens etc. prefer the combi-boiler
performance to guarantee heat demands so it would be a prudent measure to be
able to access high demand immediate heated water technologies. Are wood
burners or micro-generation our best options for more sustainable heating
systems?
Back onto the main topic of water
retention: The media will relay to the public when impending droughts will
result in lower reservoir levels, the expected hosepipe bans – thus reporting
to us the impact upon agriculture and therefore the impact upon us insuccessive years, yet too many times we feel helpless and do nothing.
As we are driven towards becoming
more innovative in our own households, an interest in allotments has grown
again since the turn of the century. People are finding ways of saving home resources
and money to become less reliant upon the existing system in these times of
really bad economic times.
This is not just about drought,
there is the other extreme of flooding – we have nothing, then there is too
much. Many believe flooding occurs as a result of poor land management where so
many thousands of trees, hedgerows have been removed, thus the soil loses its
properties and nutrients to retain water and distribute evenly.
Supporting organisations like the
woodland trust, or organic farms will go some way to reinvigorating soil
properties and reducing flooding problems. Yet a national scale of policy
implementation will be required to really support and re-establish natural
ecological processes that have naturally dealt with minimizing flooding and
drought.
What we can do though is relatively
easy. Please consider this small step and it’s massive collective positive
impact. Use any search engine and it will tell you we have approximately 30 millionhouses in the UK. Basic statistics state that in England
and Wales we have 22.5 million houses Scotland and Northern Ireland easily take
us past 30 million in housing stock numbers.
So what?
30 million houses with a 40
litre Rainwater butt will collect: 1 200
000 000 (1.2 billion) litres of water.
30 million houses with a 100
litre Rainwater butt will collect 3 000
000 000 (3 billion) litre of
water.
A couple of billion litres of
flood water, left uncollected, could wreak enough havoc in any town/city –
enough to warrant attention to further flood reductions methods. How
unrealistic is this? If every building in UK could hold an additional 100
litres of [rain] water in storage – this would drastically reduce flooding AND
offer us a free water resource in periods of severe drought like the UK
suffered in April 2011.
A 100 litre capacity water butt or
water container would be approximately 2 metres high and half a metre wide in
diameter – so could comfortably be placed on the back wall of majority of
houses adjacent to the guttering.
The balance is assured. With such
a national combined prolific level of water storage, the UK could be better
prepared for further droughts and floods to come.
What can you do?
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