H2O so indispensible
by Jo-ann Hodgson in At home on 23.05.08
“Water is not a finite resource,” A.A.Gill recently declared in a rambling restaurant review. “It isn’t a vanishing commodity; if you leave the tap running, it doesn’t vanish forever. Don’t let anybody tell you that you’re wasting it: you can’t.”
Indeed, if we’re going to be pedantic about it, he’s true. After fulfilling our household needs, water is flushed out to eventually rejoin the precipitation cycle, form rain and replenish our reservoirs.
But it’s the point that Gill dismisses with an afterthought – “you may be wasting the energy that brought it to you” – that must form the basis of arguments about water waste.
Whether dirty or unused, the water most of us flush away will be mixed with sewage and make its way through energy-intensive treatment plants, which are also alleged to pump toxic waste into the sea.
And the demand for fresh water has serious physical consequences for the environment. Take Brighton & Hove, for example. With 250,000 people (double this at the weekend) and only a handful of reservoirs providing the city’s fresh water, engineers will tell you there is most certainly a finite resource.
The aquifers that feed the world’s reservoirs are drying up, a phenomenon attributed to the effect of climate change on global weather patterns. And in order to compensate for the loss of water supply and water wastage, caused in part by leaks – it’s reported that 63 million litres of water a day escapes from South East Water pipes – we may be about to sacrifice a national beauty spot.
Between Sussex’s South Downs and Ashdown Forest, the 500 acres of Plashett Park farm may soon be underwater if South East Water receives government approval to use the area for a reservoir.
Not only would this result in the loss of three generations’ worth of work, the livelihood of those who currently work the farm and a local supplier of food, but also an area of special scientific interest. Old oaks and corridors of hedgerows and shrubs in the park provide homes for a variety of wildlife, including one of Britain’s rarest mammals, the Bechstein’s bat.
But all this may soon be history, as should be the belief that it’s not possible to waste water.
IMAGE by Flickr user Noah Bulgaria
Building reservoirs is always controversial. However, I think you’ve got to take into account the opportunities that they bring too.
In much of England, there are hardly any large, natural bodies of water. Reservoirs are often used for fishing, sailing, walking, picnics. And many of our best inland nature reserves are based on and around artifical waters (including several where you can , ahem, hear a nightingale).
So while I think that the current use of the land has to be taken into account, it should weighed up against the considerable benefits.
09.06.2008 at 11:35 am