All last winter I was agitated when walking by the Thames. I saw the authorities lowering the sluices to let billions of gallons rush to the sea for fear of flooding. Why not draw more of that water out and store it for summer? I have always remembered the 1976 disaster when a nationalised water industry ran out of water in some areas and imposed strict rationing. This weekend my Thames walk showed me a river with surprisingly good levels of water, with sluices and locks sending large volumes downstream. There is of course need for extraction in London where Thames river water is part of the supply.
The government still shows no urgency about tackling the obvious water shortage, brought on by a big increase in population and by increasing use of water as people become better off. There are several things to do
1 have a big scheme to encourage and grant aid farm reservoirs, both to irrigate crops and as a back up for the wider public supply. Offering just £15 m this week for farm reservoirs is pathetic. Make it £150 m this year and more next.
2. Get Thames Water to speed up use of the Beckton desalination plant.
3. Review Abstraction licence limits to see if we can store more river water
4. Pass emergency legislation to speed up planning permissions and other permits for new Water industry reservoirs.
5. End large scale migration into the UK.
August 18, 2026
Farmers also need an exemption from planning and environment agency permission. These delay and cost too much. In France farmers just dig a big hole and line it with land drains feeding rain into it when there is heavy rainfall, as in Janusry and June this year.
August 18, 2026
I suspect that in England right to roam means that some kid who is not being properly watched will fall in and drown. So the hoops to dig a big hole are prohibitive.
August 18, 2026
So your insurance costs will rise further.
August 18, 2026
Stred
In France the big highways also have the same sort of arrangement, the rain falling on the roads is directed in some places to lined open ponds, of which more and more are being constructed every year.
Our old Canal system was designed to have holding ponds of water, in some areas, especially where staircase locks were installed, to minimise water loss, allow for mooring up mid transit, and to stop the Canals running low/dry.
Lessons to be learn’d again ?
Dredge the rivers and they hold more water !
Simple physics has not changed, water runs downhill until it is stopped by a natural barrier or manmade construction.
August 18, 2026
Alas so many deluded lefty (& climate alarmist) politicians still think they can change the laws, they can – but not the laws of physics, energy, science, logic or economics. Nature cannot be fooled by mad politicians nor anyone else.
August 19, 2026
I noticed yesterday that all the motorway ponds were full on the way to Clermont-Ferrand.
August 18, 2026
All sensible suggestions. but it seems this government are far more interested in two tier justice in the planning system for travellers.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner is “updating” England’s planning policy to remove local restrictions on traveller site applications, a move that will make it easier to establish “traveller” camps which often then hugely devalues other other properties in that area.
Two tier justice in employment, for Cambridge professors, for justice and criminal sentencing and for planning too.
August 18, 2026
Christine Jardine MP LibDem (politics and economics Glasgow) in a long interview just now on Talk Radio. She really does seem to think the best way to stop wild fires and water shortages is for the UK to reduce its tiny (in world terms) CO2 out put! This rather rather sensible land management, controlled burnings, fire breaks, less uncontrolled re-wilding, more reservoirs and water storage, more rapid fire responses to nip fires in the bud…
These types people are mad, religious CO2 nutters, unable to think logically or they are lying for political or other reasons. The solutions they push to reduce CO2:- 1. hardly reduce it if all they just export it, 2. the UK’s CO2 output in World terms is largely irrelevant given China, India, Russia… 3. CO2 is only one of millions of factors affecting the climate anyway, 4. manmade CO2 is only a small proportions of total CO2 emissions. 5. Even if we ever did have to cool the earth there are far better ways than reducing CO2. 6. The world has had ice ages with far higher levels of CO2 than current levels. 7. Adaptation as needed be it hotter, colder, wetter, windier… will be far cheaper, far quicker and far more effective.
Reducing manmade CO2 in the UK with more renewables etc. is an insane non solution. Even if the world fully cooperated (clearly a pipe dream) it is still in reality an ineffective vastly expensive non solution.
August 18, 2026
Thames Water did invest in a (brackish) water desalination plant, officially named the Thames Gateway Water Treatment Works in Beckton, East London, rather worryingly located right next to the large Beckton Sewage Treatment Works off Jenkins Lane.
It is rarely used it seems. This as running costs are rather too expensive due to rip off Net Zero energy costs and other issues. Cheaper (for them) just to have regular summer hose pipe bans for customers it seems.
August 18, 2026
Just as it is cheaper for the NHS to deter patients with long waiting lists, waiting times, inconvenient booking systems, queues for queues for queues rather than treating patients.
Finding any excuse they can not to do an operation where possible… or sometime doing a minor op temporary fix when a full op. was needed.
August 18, 2026
Pipe line down from Scotland and we’re a island surrounded by the wet stuff so build Desalination plants it’s not rocket science
August 18, 2026
Modern seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination requires about 2.5 to 4.0 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity to produce one cubic meter (m³) of fresh water (1,000 litres). Older thermal systems much more energy. So quite expensive (especially with the UK rip off energy costs due to the Net Zero religion) rather cheaper (in the generally rather wet UK) just to build more storage reservoirs and better transport systems from the wet regions to the dryer ones.
Reply Agreed, but when you have paid for a plant you might as well run it when you are short of water
August 18, 2026
To reply:- indeed, as for some customers and most industrial users it might well be worth it (for them) to pay the higher price so they can use summer water. Better charging systems, more storage and better regulation is needed.
August 18, 2026
Large-scale industrial and municipal water transport studies estimate linear infrastructure operating and energy costs roughly around $0.05 to $0.20+ per 1,000 gallons per mile, exclusive of capital construction costs. In the UK it would doubtless cost far more due to rip off energy costs and general government incompetence – witness the vastly expensive, sick joke HS2 fiasco.
August 18, 2026
Burnham to intervene over surge pricing for water. No 10 says customers ‘cannot be treated as a blank cheque’ after threat of higher rates during droughts
Ofwat, the regulator had planned to allow firms to build “surge pricing” into bills from April during periods of water scarcity. But clearly we do need to invest in more water storage in many regions and the funds will need to come from somewhere.
But the Labour is of course perfectly happy to treat taxpayers as blank cheques in order to continue their doom loop economic lunacy.
August 18, 2026
“……blank cheque….”
Oh the irony of that statement for the taxpayers, who fund all increased Government expenditure with more and more taxation.
August 18, 2026
Plus less and less of value deliver by way of public services in return. Many “public services” do net harm like the Covid vaccines, lockdowns, net zero and misguided over regulation of almost everything.
August 18, 2026
Reassign your No 5 as the No1 priority and include the deportation of illegal entrants.
No 2, Stop immediately the nonsensical process of allowing ‘Families’ of supposed foreign Students into the country to accompany them.
No 3, cap CEO salaries at a more respectful and responsible level with any bonuses based upon positive results not negatives as is the case now.
No 4, Water Companies to concentrate upon replacing old pipework and reducing loss of water through leakages.
No 5, Stop and Transfer current Government Agricultural Re-wilding Grants to further financially boost the scheme of Farmers creating their own reservoir system, particularly in areas affected by drought both in 1976 and 2026.
No 6, Allow Local Fire Brigades to utilise water from these Agricultural Reservoirs whenever necessary.
August 18, 2026
7. Tie dividend payments into leak targets and uninterrupted supply for all uses as well as profit/surplus cash considerations.
8. Build in a statutory compensation scheme for users much like the railways. Make it punitive.
August 18, 2026
@William Smith – No 3, cap CEO salaries, that’s just Socialism. Real checks and balances come from the market place a competitive market place. Difficult for water that has been made more difficult by a Parliament believing that big is best. Thames Water should never been forced by Parliament to be that big, how could desalination in Beckton serve Swindon?
August 18, 2026
So you think it ok that failing CEO’S can receive multi £ million salaries plus huge bonuses.
I don’t give a damn what it’s called at this moment in time it’s just common sense; get real.
August 18, 2026
I iived in rural Thailand for six years where is rains heavily for four or five months and then sporadically for the remainder of the year with temperatures of between 35 and 40.
They build trenches and ponds and canals to store every drop of water that falls. Storing rainwater from their rooves for domestic use too. We have 6 100 gallon capacity urns which were constantly topped up by rainfall and showered in water from other urns dotted about the property.
We knew that water was plentiful but its distribution was not even so stored it. This allowed us to flood fields to grow rice (a highly water intensive crop) all year round, we have two yields per annum.
More reservoirs to store water for more people should really not be a difficult decision. Water companies should also be providing their customers with water butts to store rainwater to irrigate gardens and wash cars in the summer if they want supplies to be extended.
Too many of those who support surge pricing and rationing are using it as a proxy for their man made climate change agenda rather than considering over population and lack of investments as the root causes.
We, like Thailand receive plenty of rainfall.
August 18, 2026
All good points Narrow S. I particularly like and endorse your point about water buts. The new build regulations should absolutely make the water storage tank a compulsory requirement of all new builds.
If those domestic storage tanks were then used as grey water they could reduce the consumption of treated water by more than half, if flushing toilets was accommodated by rain water from the domestic rainwater storage tank.
August 18, 2026
You can see the way this is heading. Electricity today, water tomorrow. The National Energy Systems Operator used to be able to impose local blackouts at 5 minutes’ notice, but only if faced with imminent system collapse, e.g. what happened in Spain last year. Now, as from this week, NESO can activate rolling energy blackouts without the government’s approval. This is a perfect example of what we get with Labour/Tory governments outsourcing key decisions to QUANGOs, by the way. In any case, if we don’t get massive investment in water conservation and retention, I fear we’re heading for water rationing.
August 18, 2026
Richard II – NESO last week because of the eclipse? had to pay over the odds to keep the lights on.
From the Media
“NESO It was forced to pay £6.2m for the extra power – 63pc more than the £3.8m spent the previous day”
“£890 per megawatt hour (MWh) – about 10 times the normal rate for wholesale electricity.”
Neso also had to import extra power from Europe via subsea interconnectors to keep the UK system stable.
“it had to breach limits imposed by the EU to stop the UK’s growing reliance on the system from disrupting EU power markets”
We have a UK Parliament ‘managing the UK’ or perusing personal political ideology. Who pays for this incompetence, this neglect of job?
August 18, 2026
Well of course, Ian, we’re ultimately the ones who pay for it, which is surely your point. And Parliament is largely powerless now because important decisions are outsourced to QUANGOs. Blair’s legacy. Will any politicians reverse that, I wonder?
August 18, 2026
6. End and even reverse development in the south of England.
Repurpose high streets where shops appear to be no longer required.
August 18, 2026
Unfortunately, the answer with to this as with everything else can seem constantly repetitive. We elect pay and loan our MPs with ‘our’ powers. First for them to keep us sake and secure, then for them to ensure the country’s resilience and self-reliance, and to fund it a thriving flourishing economy i.e. to serve their constituency, its people and the nation. And what do they do they start by neglecting all the basics of their duty, everything they are paid to do, they wander off on in pursuit of a personal egotistical political dream world that has nothing to do with anything.
Lord Redwood, I would reverse your question, the thrust of your discussion. It’s not a failure of Thames Water, of Planning, the Railways don’t fail, energy supplies in short supply, no measurable defence of the Nation, the economy isn’t failing – ideology is killing it, and so on. It’s a failure of those that can’t even manage themselves that appear to be hallucinating, ‘drugged up’, that are thinking they are ‘Rulers’ and not there to serve the country and its people. Our MP’s with their chosen leadership, their government, its not ours, are ‘drugged on’ political ideology, political terrorism, before job and duty
On balance we need an election, but an election that clears the whole place out
August 18, 2026
You’d imagine that small pools of water on farmland, managed by farmers would be a necessity to allow them to water crops and not suffer from a lack of water generally, but of course HMG always gets in the way of something sensible.
It seems that every agency has to have a hand in un-nationalised water to ensure it is impossible for farmers to work their land with an adequate supply due to a potpourri of demands and bad regulations against farm reservoirs.
The country has done fairly well with water supplies considering the hot weather, although we still need to do better, because past records show quite clearly that the temperature can be hot or cold, in extreme, without notice. If we believed the forever wrong net-0 predictions of really hot summers, as the political class do so earnestly, then you have to ask why HMG has done so very little in mitigation!
August 18, 2026
Priorities, Food, Water, Energy, Defence?
Burnham’s £65m fund for farmers. Then handed consultants a £450m taxpayer funded contract to deliver AI training to the Civil Service – despite pledging to cut spending on external advisers.
August 18, 2026
It would be nice to think the Government is focused on your list. But our new PM seems to think swanning around the UK is more important than staying in the office and working! Your list is something all governments should have been focused on for the last twenty years.
No wonder the PM was caught out by a scammer posing as a US government official.
When will our MPs collectively wake up to the nonsense of Net Zero, which will never happen, to the disgrace of allowing unlimited numbers of immigrants, legal and illegal, to arrive, and the utter madness of spending more than we earn year after year? Then they will be surprised when we have a major financial crisis!
August 18, 2026
I see Burnham is going to give all disabled people free bus rides, not just off peak, but also at peak times.
The bus my children get to school is already over capacity, and leaving pupils behind at the bus stop, if more people are allowed onto such buses for free then the knock on impact of pupils not being able to get to school will be severe. this is crazy policy making. Especially in places where there is only one bus timed to get children to school on time.
Not helped by the council re-engineering the roads near the school so that it is impossible to drop children off by car, as another anti car measure.
Madness sheer madness. The state loves rationing, allocating, and social engineering with its confetti like money throwing around, but this leads to so many bad unintended consequences.
August 18, 2026
We are a small country in area blessed with more than adequate rainfall. It does not always fall at the right time or in the right volume but we are never presented with a situation where our usage is greater than our natural rainfall.
What we are not so good at because for most of the time we don’t ever have to think about it is water management.
When those odd occasions arrive when we are desiccated at the surface level we then start talking about more reservoirs and even desalination plants….
We have over the centuries built a network pf water ways that can be deployed to move water from areas that have too much to areas that are short. We should develop a proper water network that uses our canals rivers and lakes to better balance needs.
All that would be required are some pumps and a management structure that could be simply a monthly meeting of engineers from the water companies who decide where water is needed and they simply order the transfer.
Let’s do the simple and practical things first before we decide to build yet more resourced at great cost that will be occasionally called upon if ever.
August 18, 2026
Mr “HMOs in every postcode and despair in every heart” is still spending money thoughtlessly. Are we going to end up with buses full to the brim and only 20% of the travelling public paying? As with prescriptions? Will this be the model throughout the economy? Gas bills, water bills, food, petrol…It is already the case with council tax in student areas.
August 18, 2026
Will we have poor disabled people travelling round on free buses, tubes… just to keep warm as they cannot pay to heat their houses perhaps?
August 18, 2026
Yes agreed but number 5 should be number 1 and the rest dropped down one. Why? Becuase you can’t fix a pipe with running water in it!
August 18, 2026
250 illegals yesterday
August 19, 2026
15 million for farmers
40 million for mosques
From starmer