The CEOs of water companies have a meeting with Environmental Secretary Michael Gove this week to explain why their systems are still leaking so much water in a heatwave. Uh-oh.
What it means: In case you haven't noticed, it's been BOILING over here. Good for our tan lines, but not so good for farmers, who got 15% of average rainfall this month – the driest summer since 1961.
430 million litres of water are being wasted per day just through leaks – the equivalent of 1.5 bathtubs per household per day – and Gove wants to put a stop to that before asking people to make any more changes to our lifestyles through measures like the hosepipe ban coming into effect in the northwest next week.
Water wastage can be absolute, like when you water your lawn and the water just evaporates; or indirect, like when you leave the tap running for longer than you need it, and retreating that water to be usable again will take a huge amount of electricity (and quite a bit of time).
Fixing those issues needs people like us to change behaviour, while tackling the leaks is about companies making an investment into the infrastructure to make the whole system more efficient.
