RAPID RESPONSES
Water pipedream
[Re: Time to invest in infrastructure we actually need, yesterday] In 2006, the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) studied the potential to transfer water using the established river network. At the time this was mistaken in media reports as recommending a national water grid but that was not what ICE proposed. ICE concluded, “a water grid would be extremely costly and an unjustified venture. Water is a very heavy resource to move around and it cannot be thought of in the same way as distributing electricity.”
The solutions to drought stare us in the face. They start with saving water at home, at work and in industry and farming far better than we do now. There is huge scope to do this at all times, not just when the government holds crisis water summits. Let’s exhaust all those untapped actions before investing in a pipe dream.
Paul de Zylva, head of nature, Friends of the Earth
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American pipes
Back in 1984 when I was working overseas I was friendly with an American professor. He told me that parts of the USA export water to those states that only have little water; in other words, it was normal for one state with a surplus of water to sell it to a state with very little. It was policy, not rocket-science.
Roderick Archer
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