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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Feargal Sharkey

Water company CEOs try to woo me, but I’ve got only one message for them: do your jobs

A dry riverbed close to the source of the River Thames, near Cirencester, 14 August 2022.
A dry riverbed close to the source of the River Thames, near Cirencester, 14 August 2022. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

It came to me while I was standing on a river bank. It was such a ridiculous, nonsensical idea that I instantly tried to dismiss it. But it was like the wiggliest of wiggly earworms that just won’t leave you alone, like a tune that just keeps boring its way into your mind. That melody was: London is running out of drinking water.

Don’t take my word for it. Try the National Audit Office, which looked into the country’s looming water crisis two years ago and concluded: “If more concerted action is not taken now, parts of the south and south-east of England will run out of water within the next 20 years.” And it’s not just London – the same report warned that water shortages are an impending risk for all of the UK.

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