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England is enduring its fifth heatwave of the summer, with almost three-quarters of the country now in drought<\/a> but for many Independent readers, the real story isn\u2019t the weather<\/a> \u2013 it\u2019s what\u2019s happening underground.<\/p>\n As hosepipe bans spread to 27 million households, readers have been sharing their own run-ins with the water companies<\/a> now asking them to cut back: mains leaks left unfixed for years, reservoirs<\/a> drained while dividends flow abroad, and infrastructure that hasn\u2019t kept pace with the climate crisis. <\/p>\n Others pointed out that Portugal<\/a> and France<\/a>, both hotter and drier this summer, have avoided restrictions altogether by investing in dams and hydro power years ago.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what you had to say:<\/p>\n Water companies have failed to invest for decades<\/p>\n Water companies have under-invested for decades. Billions have gone abroad in dividends over that time. Still paying out million-pound salaries. We face drought being a more and more common thing with no end to leaks in sight. No major incentives for grey water usage. Swimming pools, golf courses and washing cars are not priorities compared to having water to flush loos, not having water to cook with and to drink.<\/p>\n avidmidlandsreader<\/a><\/p>\n A leak reported twice, still not fixed<\/p>\n Where I live, we have had a hosepipe ban for a while now. Today we are officially experiencing a drought. Just outside my house is a water leak that has been reported to the water company at least twice. A symptom of a problem that has been ongoing for at least two years, they \u201cmended\u201d one side of the road, only for it to emerge on the other. It hasn\u2019t flooded the road as all the water runs off into the adjacent canal. It\u2019s shocking that this privatised business makes me restrict my water usage while leaving this leak to waste water, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, week after week!<\/p>\n Umist0966<\/a><\/p>\n No living grass within a two-hour drive<\/p>\n I have not mowed my lawns since the 10th of June \u2013 normally I\u2019d have cut the grass seven or eight times in the last 60 days. Of 3,000 square metres of grass, only about 20 square metres isn\u2019t dead, and that\u2019s just because it\u2019s shaded by a large tree. There is no living grass anywhere within a two-hour drive of me. I\u2019ve spent my holidays here since 1990 and lived here since 2016 \u2013 I\u2019ve never seen a drought like this. The river near here normally makes the Thames look like a brook, but in places I think I could wade across it. Trying to grow onions has been a sick joke; my tomato plants dropped three trusses\u2019 worth of flowers when the temperature didn\u2019t dip below 36C for 14 days running.<\/p>\n Oo<\/a><\/p>\n Not all swimming pools should be treated the same<\/p>\n Only private pools should be banned, not public pools, which often recycle water by sending it through large filtration plants, often under the pool with the addition of chemicals. Private pools don\u2019t usually have such large plant rooms. Public pools not only help people cool off (summer temperature of the water is usually 20C), but are safer than swimming in a quarry where the water is much colder, making it dangerous, and unsupervised.<\/p>\n LadyCrumpsall<\/a><\/p>\n Portugal built dams instead of imposing bans<\/p>\n Here in Portugal, while the UK was doing nothing, they were creating dam after dam to save water and generate hydro. Over 30C for weeks and weeks with zero rain and no water bans. In addition, all new data centres have to generate their own electricity and cannot go anywhere near using drinking water. Just showing the contrast between a normal country and the basket case that is the UK.<\/p>\n ficklepickle<\/a><\/p>\n France is hotter but has no bans<\/p>\n It is far hotter here in France; no outright bans, other than any kind of fire. The municipal pool is open. I don\u2019t know about golf courses, but the cows have not been brought down to the field near us this year, for the first time in 30 years.<\/p>\n MonteRosa<\/a><\/p>\n French farmers face a similar crisis<\/p>\n Same story in France. Today\u2019s Figaro carries a stark warning from farmers of a \u201chuge moral and physical exhaustion\u201d as heatwaves hit market gardening, livestock and viticulture across the country. Agroclimatologist Serge Zaka is quoted as saying this may be one of the largest agricultural disasters in France since 1945.<\/p>\n Albie12<\/a><\/p>\n Today\u2019s drought could become next month\u2019s flood<\/p>\n It will dawn on people soon that data centres don\u2019t fill fields with crops \u2013 the food in a tin in Tesco had to be grown somewhere first. England is in an emergency situation: the fields are burnt dry, and in a month\u2019s time it will rain and they\u2019ll flood. All that water will simply drain away, leaving carnage and empty reservoirs behind it. This will happen again next year, and the years after that. If you\u2019re ever going to act on privatised English water, you\u2019d better do it sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n Chichee<\/a><\/p>\n Car washes face no equivalent restrictions<\/p>\n Everyone must stop watering your tomatoes. No filling paddling pools. Don\u2019t have baths, have showers because there\u2019s a drought and we must all save water. But there\u2019s no water shortage when it comes to commercial car washes which go through up to 16,000 litres of water per day! Drought for us but not for them.<\/p>\n fenwoman<\/a><\/p>\n Rainwater tanks could ease the pressure<\/p>\n Maybe this will finally stir officials and MPs into getting large water tanks fitted to houses and businesses, so people can use their own reclaimed roof water instead of relying on new reservoirs. Tanks are available up to at least 30,000 litres, though smaller ones might suit most homes. Don\u2019t scalp your lawn either \u2013 mow it on a higher setting and it\u2019ll stay green, and shrubs and insect\u2013friendly flowers will harvest their own water from overnight dew. The BBC showed grass turning brown on scalped cricket pitches today \u2013 mine\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n JoeRobson<\/a><\/p>\n Privatisation has failed everyone except investors<\/p>\n Thatcher\u2019s privatisation experiment has failed everyone except the investors. We have droughts, leaking pipes, inadequate reservoirs and raw sewage being discharged into our rivers and seas, while private companies extract profits from essential services. It\u2019s time to stop treating water and other essential public services as profit-making businesses and bring them back into public ownership.<\/p>\n Moxie<\/a><\/p>\n Infrastructure investment is long overdue<\/p>\n Our water supply infrastructure is a sad story. At the very least, perhaps we\u2019ll see pressure to upgrade old pipes faster and speed up the deployment of additional reservoirs at the higher level to ensure adequate supply of drinking water. It should also make us think of how to make better use of rainwater at home, and recycling of used water.<\/p>\n PeterTheGreat<\/a><\/p>\n Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.<\/p>\n Want to share your views<\/a>? Simply click \u201clog in\u201d or \u201cregister\u201d in the top right corner to sign in or sign up. Once registered, you can comment on the day\u2019s top stories for a chance to have your opinions showcased.<\/p>\n Want your voice to stand out? Independent Premium subscribers enjoy priority for featured comments. Subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Make sure you adhere to our community guidelines, which can be found here<\/a>. For a full guide on how to comment, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-736716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}