19th and 20th February 2012.
UK. Drought and Population Growth.
Adequate water supply is vital for any nation, and where the population continues to grow massively, securing that supply is often very difficult, as it increasingly is in England. Now a serious drought has been declared in parts of England.
The availablity of fresh water in any country is limited. It depends on stocks in underground aquifers, supplies in man–made dams, and rainfall, the last mentioned being usually unpredictable. In a country like England, other land use requirements, such as increasing food supply to meet the needs of a
growing human population, mean that there is a limit of space for building any new dams.
Now a major summit on water supplies has been called by the Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman, at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on the same day that it was announced that the South East is now officially in drought.
Details of the drought.
- “Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, parts of Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire,and west Norfolk are still in drought.
- “Shropshire and Nottinghamshire in our Midlands region and Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, East Sussex and Kent in our South East region are still affected by dry weather.
- “In the Anglian region groundwater levels remain exceptionally low. Soils in these areas are still not wet enough for widespread recharge to take place.
- “The Midlands region, Anglian region and South East region all received below average rainfall for January (79 per cent, 74 per cent and 66 per cent respectively of the long term average rainfall). It has been the driest ever five month period (September 2011 to January 2012) in Anglian region.
- “The driest 12 months between February and January ever saw 636mm of rain – between Feb 2011–Jan 2012 we had 774mm which is the 8th driest ever.”
“As parts of the UK have been affected by droughts for many months and prolonged periods of heavy rainfall in the near future are unlikely according to recent Met Office forecasts, the Environment Secretary urged water companies, businesses, and people to find ways of reducing water waste and water usage.“
“Save water now to limit the effects of drought says Spelman.”
Defra
“Drought summit as rivers in England dry up.”
BBC