RAPID RESPONSES
Fluid thinking
[Re: Time to invest in infrastructure we actually need, Monday]
Water shortages will continue to be a problem unless we tackle them, but unfortunately the real solutions are not “sexy”. A national water grid is impractical, economically and environmentally, and a major undertaking. It couldn’t be done in the near future. Any comparison to the national electricity grid is illogical – water is a heavy incompressible liquid that requires huge quantities of energy to move.
We need a strategic approach to water management. Smart metering and low-use fixtures could help, but demand will only drop if water is priced highly enough to change behaviour. The challenge is to raise awareness of the wider role played by water, and so raise its perceived value to us all, while protecting the poorest in our society from higher water prices.
Michael Norton, chair of the Institution of Civil Engineers water panel
………………..
Wishful thinking
I used to work with a member of the Cabinet Office, and can tell you that the main reason a national water grid was not built after the 1976 drought was because Environment Agency experts concluded in a feasibility study that the severity of the drought was a once in a lifetime event.
Name withheld