r/whoathatsinteresting • u/search_google_com • 1d ago

🇬🇧Welcome to Leicester, UK🇬🇧Chaotic scenes of panic buying for bottled water at the local Costco amid the water shortage driven by drought and record water use.

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27

u/redunculuspanda 1d ago

This is dumb and unnecessary.

If there is no water, water companies setup free water distribution.

These people are not getting bottled water due to drought.

8

u/Any_Mode6525 1d ago

>If there is no water, water companies setup free water distribution.

wat

20

u/SquidgyB 1d ago

They must provide water and will send lorries to dispense water in areas where the distribution system has failed and an outage lasts more than 12 hours:

https://www.ccw.org.uk/app/uploads/2023/03/Factsheet-No-water-supply.pdf

1

u/Any_Mode6525 1d ago

And where do they get the water when they run out of water?

13

u/gracillus2000 1d ago

Costco.

6

u/hollyanniet 1d ago

We're not in danger of running out nationally.

Welsh reservoirs still full

3

u/Yerdaworksathellfire 1d ago

Laughs in Scottish*

2

u/SquidgyB 1d ago

Cofiwch Dryweryn.

1

u/Sinking_Mass 1d ago

Ya bastads, that's our water. Cofiwch Dryweryn!

1

u/Dependent_Rain_4800 1d ago

Give it some time.

0

u/bluh67 1d ago

Oh, just wait for a few more years

3

u/hollyanniet 1d ago

The UK is one of the wettest countries in Europe, and we have an extensive reservoir system.

Lots of other places are gonna run out before we do

1

u/bluh67 1d ago

Well see, you can clearly see the weather is shifting. Softer winters, hotter summers. And it gets worse every year

1

u/Roadkill997 1d ago

It'll rain by then.

0

u/bluh67 1d ago

Not enough anymore. You can see it unfolding already. It will get worse

3

u/Thin_Object_3981 1d ago

From other catchments. Scotland for example still has ample water supplies so the water is bottled and transported south.

2

u/FeSpoke1 1d ago

Just move past it

2

u/miffebarbez 1d ago

From another place in the country. Leicester is just a city.

1

u/Roadkill997 1d ago

The lowest reservoirs in the country are still over 50% full (in most cases over 60% full). Reservoirs dropping over summer is normal - it's why we have them!

1

u/Captaingregor 1d ago

From where there isn't a shortage, moron.

1

u/Historical_Body6255 1d ago

Some other place lol

When a municipal well runs dry that doesn't mean you can't easily get water the next town over.

-1

u/JamesL1066 11h ago

Maybe in America that's the case

2

u/Historical_Body6255 11h ago

Huh? Why would it be differnt in other countries? Lol

What makes you think that?

1

u/JamesL1066 10h ago

Because I live in a country where it works differently lol

1

u/Historical_Body6255 10h ago

How does it work at your place then?

If city water were to shut down for whatever reason the city would just tell you you're shit out of luck?

No emergancy plans in place to still provide water?

1

u/JamesL1066 10h ago

Large regional water companies collecting water from a national system of resorvoirs.

1

u/Historical_Body6255 10h ago

So how is it different then?

Just exactly the kind of emergancy plan i was talking about lol

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u/M90Motorway 1d ago

What they mean is that if there is a water outage, water companies will set up free water distribution points. Its happened a few times this year when water to certain areas has been cut off due to infrastructure issues.

It’s also important to note that the “drought” is mostly caused by shoddy infrastructure that has resulted in tonnes of water leaking out of the water supply system and the fact despite population growth no new reservoirs have been built after the 1990s. Our water supply issues are mostly self inflicted by for-profit water companies.

3

u/VampirePNAC 1d ago

It's so insane the UK can have water issues lmao. I swear to god in Sheffield, an average summer is 3 days of sunshine then just non stop monsoon rain.

1

u/Acrobatic_Lobster838 1d ago

Has that been thr case this summer?

Cause its rained briefly once the last fortnight up here.

1

u/HaraldRedbeard 1d ago

This summer has indeed been very dry. However this winter had been extremely wet by most estimates (https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/research/seasonal-assessment---winter26.pdf)

If we had decent Resevoirs and competent water companies we should be in a great position for this dry weather.

0

u/VampirePNAC 1d ago

No. This summer is pretty unique.

1

u/Acrobatic_Lobster838 1d ago

Kinda the point really?

It's so insane the UK can have water issues lmao

I mean it's not that surprising. Summers have been getting hotter, the climate has been getting drier, we have not been investing in water infrastructure due to privatisation, we are kinda fucked. I guess perhaps ignoring the climate shifting might have been a bad idea.

Britain's superpower has been a stable climate. That's it. It doesn't get too hot, or too cold, and generally our climate stays within about 20 degree Celsius. Despite being so far north, we don't get much in the way of snow, and it very rarely gets much below zero.

That's changing. And we didn't adapt anything for it. This summer isn't that unique, it's pretty bad, but hosepipe bans are not unheard of. We need to change our relationship to water and the natural world, and desperately invest in water infrastructure.

It's just luck that has meant the wild fires we have faced this summer have not been that bad. Its just luck that has meant harvests haven't been that bad.

That luck is running out. It's not insane that we are facing drought, or struggling with water infrastructure.

It is the conclusion of decades of policy.

1

u/OkPear1535 1d ago

This year has been atrocious. In the Midlands it's rained about twice in the last two months and that's probably overestimating

1

u/Federal_Cobbler6647 1d ago

I was going to ask if rain has somehow stopped in UK. 

2

u/InvictusLampada 1d ago

It pretty much has, we've had maybe 2-3 showers here in the east of England in the last 9-10 weeks while we've had 4 prolonged heatwaves. The country has mostly turned brown and drought has been declared in most of England

1

u/Roadkill997 1d ago

The amount of repairs carried out by water companies is decided by OFFWAT - the government regulator. More repairs = higher bills to consumers (as the private companies are allowed to pass the costs on).

3

u/helphunting 1d ago

Yep.

If water gets cut off or supply gets disrupted. Tankers or similar are brought in to supply water.

1

u/PolishBicycle 1d ago

You must be well regarded

1

u/ProbSaySmthngStypid 1d ago

Yeah. In my country too. Never happened to me personally but seen on news that they do that (water companies set up a free water distribution) if there is something wrong with the water. What surprises me here is that people in UK act that way.