Drought is looming over England, but are we doing anything about it?

It hasn’t rained in parts of England for over four weeks now, and some areas have had a very dry Winter. Coupled with low rainfall last year, that means that large areas are expected to experience drought early on in 2023, possibly as early as Easter. Sadly, there is not enough discussion going on about this and people are not making the necessary preparations. Everyone with a garden should install at least one water butt so that they have a supply of fresh water to keep their garden going. And all industries and land-owners who need a supply of water should have made plans last year to capture their rainwater and to hold it in a tank ready for re-use, especially sites like football grounds where they need lots of water to irrigate the pitches. But no-one seems to be taking this seriously and we are setting ourselves up for a dreadful summer. It isn’t clear why the British press don’t carry these stories, or why the British public don’t talk about it much; after all, we are famous for talking about the weather. If we could encourage everyone to remember that stormwater isn’t a problem; it’s a solution in-the-making, then we could all find ways to capture it and to keep it for use in the drought. We must make our sustainable drainage devices, our parks, our gardens and our homes, drought-ready so that we are drawing less water from the environment all year round, and not simply making the changes once the drought has arrived. Do you have a water butt at your home, to water your garden? Or do you work in a business where captured rainwater could be used for toilet-flushing or in process waters?