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Thames head dries

Post 10 in The Guardian thread. I live there and have done for nearly 30 years.

Water company abstraction is certainly part of the general low(er) flow issue.

Just as an aside; I know Mark Everard quite well and he told me recently that he reckons the flow in the nearby upper Bristol Avon has fallen by circa 50% since he moved to this area (25-30 years ago). And that isn’t due to a huge long term drop in rainfall.
 
Tim Marks said:
Post 10 in The Guardian thread. I live there and have done for nearly 30 years.

Water company abstraction is certainly part of the general low(er) flow issue.

Just as an aside; I know Mark Everard quite well and he told me recently that he reckons the flow in the nearby upper Bristol Avon has fallen by circa 50% since he moved to this area (25-30 years ago). And that isn’t due to a huge long term drop in rainfall.
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You cant keep flooding this country with people and not expect the water to be abstracted to help them survive ☹
 
Tim Marks said:
Post 10 in The Guardian thread. I live there and have done for nearly 30 years.

Water company abstraction is certainly part of the general low(er) flow issue.

Just as an aside; I know Mark Everard quite well and he told me recently that he reckons the flow in the nearby upper Bristol Avon has fallen by circa 50% since he moved to this area (25-30 years ago). And that isn’t due to a huge long term drop in rainfall.
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50% wow. That is such a staggering reduction in flow that if it was anyone other than Mark Everard I'd struggle to believe it was quite to that extent.

When flow is reduced that much then the impacts of pollution and predation must be substantially more significant.
 
Anthony James said:
Not disagreeing but I would take that with a pinch of salt from the daily mail mate. Any other sources?
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Well don't let facts get in the way of a good scare story, the picture of a dried up Thames is I believe Ashton Keynes, here it dries up like that every Summer. Mark Everard is probably exaggerating the 50% drop ...although I don't doubt there is a decline. Headwaters often dry up, nothing new in that, Teme being a good example, you can bet levels will be brim full come Christmas and we will be moaning about flooding.
 
Mark Pevy said:
You cant keep flooding this country with people and not expect the water to be abstracted to help them survive ☹
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So build more water storage and start educating people to use less.

In 20 years time the population will be higher still - so maybe somebody should start planning for that now……
 
Can you imagine if any other commodity was like water?

They supply us with something that’s falls out the sky, loose half of it during the delivery and charge you. You then get charged a second time, often by a different company to remove it from your home and treat it. Half the time they don’t treat it, because they’re having a hard time. Then post millions in profit.

I brought 6 carrots, it was a bag of 10 but 4 fell out on the way to the shop so I’m paying an inflated price for 6. They then collect the peelings, but the vans full so they leave 50% of it on my driveway whilst charging to dispose of 100%. You just wouldn’t stand for it.
 
I don't think having a higher population is the issue. When the water companies were privatised in the early 90's, a whole swathe of investment was promised, a better infrastructure and all that sort of thing. Predictably, that never happened, and just like everything else, the money was given to shareholders instead.

Good old progress eh?
 
The thing about water, it is a constant, there is never more or less, its just sometimes too much in one place and too little in another. The Earth is 2/3rds water .We have one of the wettest climates, and yet on top of 13% inflation, sky high petrol, soariing energy prices,the possibility of Starmer as PM, Bristol City are officially crap, we now are facing a nationwide hose pipe ban.
Can it get any worse?
Well yes its too f%*#$×g hot to go fishing.😬
 
Neil Smart said:
The thing about water, it is a constant, there is never more or less, its just sometimes too much in one place and too little in another. The Earth is 2/3rds water .We have one of the wettest climates, and yet on top of 13% inflation, sky high petrol, soariing energy prices,the possibility of Starmer as PM, Bristol City are officially crap, we now are facing a nationwide hose pipe ban.
Can it get any worse?
Well yes its too f%*#$×g hot to go fishing.😬
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It's going to get worse Neil. Thicklizzy will see to that. The last 12 years have been a disaster, and the current lot are to blame.
Starmer is Tory-lite, so we are doomed.
 
John Care said:
It's going to get worse Neil. Thicklizzy will see to that. The last 12 years have been a disaster, and the current lot are to blame.
Starmer is Tory-lite, so we are doomed.
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Now John the message is not to talk ourselves into a recession! But yes what a mess, not even Angela's (charms) could I fear get Old Father Thames waters flowing again.
Agree 100% Starmer is not your usual suspect, which makes the whole thing a bit bazaar, I guess there's Ed Davey, he has a good vision for the environment, but is unelectable.
 
Surely we all know by now that changing the manager of the party in power doesn’t really do anything, even changing the party in power at best changes the how it goes wrong. Politics doesn’t change society, people do, which is pretty much the idea of democracy. Until you get a large enough change in society to create change you’ll just get paint over cracks.
 
You beat me to it neil, headwaters of the dove, or rather a multitude of small brooks ,cuttings etc dry up every year on the back of the peninnes, theres plenty of bridges over dry beds up there,
 
John Care said:
I don't think having a higher population is the issue. When the water companies were privatised in the early 90's, a whole swathe of investment was promised, a better infrastructure and all that sort of thing. Predictably, that never happened, and just like everything else, the money was given to shareholders instead.

Good old progress eh?
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Deregulation. Competion is good. Is how I remember the pitch.
Gas, electric, water, railways. It just created cartels. Renationalise the lot.
 
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