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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Sandra Laville, Fiona Harvey and Robin McKie

Act now on water or face emergency queues on the streets, UK warned

Water levels at Bewl reservoir in Lamberhurst, England.
Water levels at Bewl reservoir in Lamberhurst, England. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

A national hosepipe ban should be implemented as a national priority along with compulsory water metering across the UK by the end of the decade.

That is the key message that infrastructure advisers have given the government as the nation braces itself for a drought that is threatening major disruption to the nation. Failure to act now would leave Britain facing a future of queueing for emergency bottled water “from the back of lorries”.

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