It’s officially a drought. The Environment Agency has moved 8 of its 14 areas into drought status, including London.
In practical terms, it means water rationing may take place and there will be fewer barriers for water companies implementing hosepipe bans. Thames Water’s Cathryn Ross said there is usually a two-week process for introducing a hosepipe ban but that can be bypassed in an emergency.
Asked whether such a measure could come in straight away, she told BBC Breakfast: “Very probably, yes. We are ready to go with our hosepipe ban.”
After a weekend of 35C temperatures, rain is expected to fall in the capital on Monday. But that’s not the unalloyed good news it may seem to be. Dry ground absorbs water far more slowly and heavy rainfall could spark flash floods.
Often, when other people or nations face the same problems we do, we feel better about ourselves. Not on this occasion. France is suffering from devastating wildfires that have caused 10,000 people to flee their homes. Meanwhile, high water temperatures mean it is unable to cool some nuclear reactors, and so French demand for alternative energy supplies is up.
Further east and the Rhine River is down to critical levels. This is bad for marine life and agriculture but also for global trade. The Dutch, Swiss and Germans have relied on the waterway to transport goods for hundreds of years. The Danube is similarly running low, causing problems for central and eastern Europe.
That’s the thing about climate change. It’s not simply the warmer, wetter or dryer conditions. It is that humans have made fixed investments in specific geographical locations in anticipation of certain climatic conditions. These may not yet be over, but they are becoming far less reliable.
So what do we do about it? Well, the UK has committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Though, the favourite to be the next prime minister seems to not like solar power. But we also need to adapt.
Back in April 2018, the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) published a report, Preparing for a drier future, which warned that the water supply system was already strained and the pressure would only rise over the coming decades as a result of climate change and an increasing population (particularly in the drier south and east).
It recommended that the government boost drought resilience by investing in the capacity of the water supply system, combining demand management (fixing leaks) with long-term investment in supply infrastructure.
It’s Friday, it’s hot, obviously don’t start reading an old NIC paper. It;’s just that for centuries, London’s weather could be characterised as ‘mild’. Rarely too hot or too cold, wet or dry, just a little cloudy. We complained about it, of course, but I think we already miss it.
In the comment pages, Emma Loffhagen says that being a minority within a minority carries a certain extra burden, which is why Black Pride is precious.
While I didn’t set out to become the Standard’s Serena Williams correspondent (but I’m not mad about it). Anyway, here’s my take on her retirement evolution away from tennis, why the sport will miss her for more than her tennis, and why we all need a big sister like Venus.
Finally, why everyone is ‘quiet quitting’ their jobs – except for Amy Francombe, who’s filed this fascinating piece.
Have lovely a weekend
