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Ellie Zolfagharifard
Ellie Zolfagharifard
Senior Reporter
Technology fix needed for water shortages
It’s been less than a year since the devastating floods swept the North West, yet millions of people in the region are now facing a hose pipe ban.
The restrictions came into force at 6am this morning and will include households in major cities including Manchester and Liverpool.
United Utilities, the company enforcing the ban, said the measure would ‘make sure that we don’t run out of water during what could be a long, dry summer.’
It added that only around half the amount of rain had fallen since January compared to the annual average and that reservoirs, which are expected to be around 75 per cent full for this time of year, are just over 50 per cent full today.
So where exactly has all the water gone? Leaks in the system are one culprit. Last year residents in Merseyside experienced a major flood following a burst water main - the third in 18 months.
There should be a place for technology to tackle these leaks, which United Utilities claims are hard to detect as many lie under buildings, roads and motorways.
Another solution would be build more reservoirs. Thames Water has recently put forward plans to build a £1bn reservoir near Abingdon in Oxfordshire which would have a capacity equivalent to half of Lake Windermere.
While many of the areas that experienced the flooding in the North West, including Carlisle and Allerdale, are excluded from the ban the irony has not been lost on local residents.
Whatever causes and exacerbates the floods, the fact remains that both companies and the government need to come up with a better way of managing water in the UK if future shortages are to be prevented.
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Readers' comments (27)
Anonymous | 9 Jul 2010 1:26 pm
And I thought this happens only in India!!
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Adrian Montagu | 9 Jul 2010 1:31 pm
The problem of water shortages will not go away with every single leak fixed. There will be increasing pressure put upon the water system due to increasing population. Yet the country is not short of rainfall! The solution is in a national grid for water. We have done it for gas so why not for water. Every sucessful civilisation has developed well due to proper infrastructure. We must now update our systems and plan further than just a few years ahead.
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Geoff Proven | 9 Jul 2010 1:36 pm
We waste, as a "modern" society, so much beautiful drinking water: stupidly to flush toilets, to bathe and on domestic chores.
Every household where possible, should utilise rainwater from roofs, to flush toilets, etc.
Bath water should be recycled into grey water tanks for the same sewage transport purpose.
This is very simple to do, but the modern publice needs to be rer-educated on the precious value of our water.
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Brian M | 9 Jul 2010 1:38 pm
A number of reasons for the problem
1. Lack of investment
It's hard to expect a private company to put investment over profits. One reason why essential supplies/utilities should not be owned by private companies (being run by is different).
2. 'Not in my back yard' (NIMBY) when it comes to building public utilities. With an increasing population we have to have more reservoirs etc, the irony being there is less room for them due to the ever increasing populations.
3. A national water grid is an option linking different areas, but suspect the cost would be prohibitive.
A complete solution requires more investment, public interest overruling NIMBY's and of course a reduction in demand, forget stones in loos! This needs to be a reduction in the population to something that is easily sustainable given the potential impact of global warming (it hasn't gone away... ).
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Alan Fielding | 9 Jul 2010 1:48 pm
So far I have heard nothing but excuses for not creating a "National Grid" for water, only the other week I heard a so called expert saying that it wasn't necessary and wasn't needed. Surely there must be a case for it these days.
Just what exactly are we paying increased amounts of money to water authorities for? They keep telling us that we have to invest money for future water supplies but it seems as though they have made no advances in being able to harness this precious commodity.
Questions should be asked by the government and investigations made to see why our water supplies are not secure now.
Never was this so important as now.
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Paul Sanderson | 9 Jul 2010 1:51 pm
Perhaps it is over demand rather than lack of supply. We all take for granted having clean water - the cheapest utility by far. Higher water charges might encourage more efficient useage.
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David Robson | 9 Jul 2010 2:04 pm
It's like anything else in the UK. We don't learn the first time round so when the issues rears its ugly head again, we're caught still twiddling thumbs. Consider the flood barriers in worst affected areas - a good number still need installing...
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Anonymous | 9 Jul 2010 2:28 pm
The problem here isn't really 'where has all the water gone?'. One of the reasons the floods were as bad as they were was that the reservoirs were full so couldn't absorb the excess which caused the flooding on its natural way to the sea. The excess rain over the winter therefore had very little effect on the water stocks.
There has been a greatly reduced supply since then but people are still using the water at the same rate so not unsurprisingly the available stock is now low. Even in a totally leak free system this would be the case, albeit less quickly.
Extra reservoirs that weren't full could have absorbed the heavy rain would have helped with the flooding but since their emergency capacity is only available if they aren't full then they would need to have been emptied shortly after the heavy rain which would therefore mean that they wouldn't be available now.
Conversely, extra reservoirs would help now but would probably have made no difference to the flooding since they would be held as full as possible to ensure supply in the case of a drought and would therefore have no spare capacity to help in the case of unexpectedly heavy rain.
Surely the only way to cope with a limited supply is to restrict usage. In this case stopping leaks is one part but maybe the end users should not expect to be able to use the resource quite so freely, particularly where potable water isn't a requirement. Grey water anyone?
Regards
Nick Green,
Design Engineer
IHC Engineering Business Ltd
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Gary J WEIL | 9 Jul 2010 2:51 pm
UK water departments need to learn about and use the latest Remote Sensing tools for locating pipeline leaks in both water distribution lines and wastewater collection systems. These proven technologies can locate leaks using Infrared sensors mounted on either vans or helicopters. Van mounted systems can locate pipeline leaks beneath 16 km per day while helicopter systems can be used to locate leaks in entire towns.
Techniques also have been developed that use chemical grouting coupled with microwave based 3D subsurface imaging systems to perform surgical repairs on these pipelines without the requirement for trenching. Overall savings of these combined systems has shown typical savings of greater than 70% as compared with old fashioned trenching techniques.
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Reza | 9 Jul 2010 2:55 pm
This is not the first time we're blaming the nature for our own shortcomings. Water companies and government have to get together and find a better ways of managing and maintaining our water resources and infrastructure instead of searching for nonsense excuses.
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