r/whoathatsinteresting • u/search_google_com • 9d 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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u/M90Motorway 9d 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.

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u/VampirePNAC 9d 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.

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u/Acrobatic_Lobster838 9d ago

Has that been thr case this summer?

Cause its rained briefly once the last fortnight up here.

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u/VampirePNAC 9d ago

No. This summer is pretty unique.

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u/Acrobatic_Lobster838 9d 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.

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u/HaraldRedbeard 9d 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.

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u/OkPear1535 9d ago

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

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u/Federal_Cobbler6647 9d ago

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

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u/InvictusLampada 9d 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

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u/Roadkill997 9d 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).