Water.

[cee-dee]

Water? OK, everyone know's water's wet but in the UK we either have too much or not enough?

A couple of things struck me. 1/ We've all seen pics of the low levels in reservoirs (we have, haven't we?) but while they're low, why don't they clear all the mud, debris and shores to increase the capacity for when the levels return to "normal"?

2/ Planting more trees? Hmmmm, a conundrum there? OK, so trees improve the air quality but they "drink" a lot of water. Only one large tree consumes 40 gallons of water a day. That water has to come from somewhere?

So, what's your thoughts on those two points?

[right-then-petal]

Hmmm Who's Paying

[margaret*e]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/italy-drought-ww2-bomb-water-river-po-rcna41965

[*guinevere*]

Tree hugger here 😊

Doesn't most of the water a tree drinks come from underground and therefore it shouldn't impact on the water levels in the reservoirs?

I'm in the north, and although our levels are quite low we aren't parched like the images I've seen of London and surrounding areas. All I could see was brown grass, reminiscent of the summer of 1976.

[*guinevere*]

---

@margaret*e wrote:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/italy-drought-ww2-bomb-water-river-po-rcna41965

---

Oh wow!

[cee-dee]

How far do the tree roots go down? Not that far? So, water that could make its way to a watercourse gets siphoned off before it gets there? ie, to watercourses that feed reservoirs?

[margaret*e]

They're talking about hosepipe bans for 15 million more people.

[cee-dee]

That didn't go down very well where they had that flooding from a big leak?

The poor RT is a shadow of it's former self, no discussions to speak of now?

[margaret*e]

No, it wouldn't.

According to news this morning 15 billion litres of water are lost through leaks. 

[cee-dee]

Heck, that'd fill a reservoir or two?

[blue_scavenger]

Sizzling dragon-greetings,

The last thing this fire-breathing dragon wants is water. I know water is required for life here on your planet but this hot weather has been glorious for my fire glands. 

Chuff

[hill-walker]

To paraphrase Eric Morecambe: we have the right amount of water... not necessarily in all the right places.

[*knight-rider*]

We should be building more reservoirs, apparently the last one was built in the 20`s, when the population was a quarter of what it is now. Lack of rain certainly makes a difference, but if you`ve got nearly 70 million people useing the water from reservoirs built for 20 million, somethings gonna give.

[yellowmouse01]

Trees don't 'drink' water, they transport it through their tissues and release it into the atmosphere where it returns to the water cycle as mist and rain. It is not 'lost'

[cee-dee]

If trees only "transport" water, they don't need any? So why do they die when there's insufficient or no water at all?

OK, being sensible, so only a percentage is actually consumed by the tree but during drought conditions, the water is still being "pumped" in to the atmosphere and lost from the place where the trees are.