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While we Londoners are famously known for our preoccupation with the weather and are always a bit averse to going brolly-less even when the forecast is set for sunshine, it seems that in recent years our avowed conviction that it’s always raining in the capital – second only to Manchester’s constant drizzle – has actually become a myth.
London’s weather, along with that of many other cities, has become steadily drier and hotter over the last few decades, and that’s become a real cause for concern as a new report, ‘Scorched Earth’, published this month by Christian Aid, outlines. As a result of climate change, our city is looking at serious droughts in the future.
You’ll remember London heatwaves in recent years (2020 was a prime example) and the CEO of the Environment Agency, James Bevan, warned that within 25 years London and the South East could run out of water. The cost of a severe drought to London’s economy is estimated by Thames Water at £330m per day and it would have enormous economic, social and environmental consequences. The Environment Agency has said that by 2050 some UK rivers will see 50-80 percent less water during the summer months.
If you are reading this while staring out at an Uber Boat clipping up the Thames that might seem a little unlikely but as the report explains, even though it covers more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface, only 3 percent of the world’s water is suitable for drinking. Of this fresh water, 70 percent is locked in glaciers and ice caps and, scarily, less than 0.01 percent of all fresh water worldwide is available for human use in lakes, rivers and reservoirs.
The problem is that we are using so much of it too with all those post-gym showers, keeping the tap running when we brush our teeth and all those multiple loos flushing at once. The Christian Aid analysis shows that global water usage grew at more than twice the rate of population increases over the course of the twentieth century.
Graham Knott, a retired water and environmental engineer, sets out the stark reality:
‘Higher temperatures, combined with the growing levels of demand from cities, make our precious freshwater resources extremely vulnerable. Even London and the South East of England face water shortages in the coming years if we don’t tackle climate change and adapt to its impacts by better managing our water resources and infrastructure.’
But how, you might ask, does this square with the many reports we’ve seen that huge areas of London could be affected by flooding in the future? Sadly, it seems that it’s the other side of the same coin that is global warming, as Knott explains:
‘Set against this, many cities have seen significant increases in damaging and fatal floods. Durban, South Africa and even the desert cities of Saudi Arabia have recently suffered from significant flooding. Unchecked pollution of the clean water we have makes things even worse. Without action and adaptation, climate change threatens to affect many things we currently take for granted.’
This is no longer a vague and distant concern. Take Cape Town. In 2018, after an extended drought, it came within days of becoming the first major city in the world to run out of water. ‘Day Zero’, when the taps for 4 million inhabitants would be turned off, was only averted after emergency measures were implemented to cut the city’s water usage by 50 percent.
So, remember the old school loo motto, ‘If it’s yellow, let it mellow’, and hold back on that flush at home.
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