Water ban baffles UK residents as rain falls
Source: Agencies |
May 5, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
SODDEN fields. Deep puddles. Flash floods. This is what drought looks like in Britain.
Last month, water authorities banned 20 million UK homeowners from using hoses to water their lawns or wash their cars, saying two exceptionally dry winters had plunged much of Britain into drought.
Since then, the rain has hardly let up.
Official figures show that April was both cooler than average and the wettest in a century, leaving a trail of flooded properties, canceled events and grumpy residents.
But officials insist the drought and the watering ban remain - to the bafflement of many Britons.
In eastern England, Daniel Allen noted with irony that he's been told he can't water the lush foliage in the grounds of his riverside pub, the Rushbrooke Arms - "which is incredible as I had a river running through it yesterday."
The River Lark usually runs past the thatched pub in Sicklesmere village as a trickle.
"Yesterday the river was lapping into our yard. It filled up the car park completely," Allen said.
Yesterday, Sicklesmere was one of 22 sites under Environment Agency flood warnings, meaning flooding is likely.
The agency issued a further 61 flood alerts across England.
The water firms say rivers and reservoirs remain low, and it will take a wet winter to restore normal conditions.
"It's going to take more than a week or two of rain to undo the effects of nearly two years of below-average rainfall," Environment Agency water resources expert Tony Bishop wrote in a blog.
Last month, water authorities banned 20 million UK homeowners from using hoses to water their lawns or wash their cars, saying two exceptionally dry winters had plunged much of Britain into drought.
Since then, the rain has hardly let up.
Official figures show that April was both cooler than average and the wettest in a century, leaving a trail of flooded properties, canceled events and grumpy residents.
But officials insist the drought and the watering ban remain - to the bafflement of many Britons.
In eastern England, Daniel Allen noted with irony that he's been told he can't water the lush foliage in the grounds of his riverside pub, the Rushbrooke Arms - "which is incredible as I had a river running through it yesterday."
The River Lark usually runs past the thatched pub in Sicklesmere village as a trickle.
"Yesterday the river was lapping into our yard. It filled up the car park completely," Allen said.
Yesterday, Sicklesmere was one of 22 sites under Environment Agency flood warnings, meaning flooding is likely.
The agency issued a further 61 flood alerts across England.
The water firms say rivers and reservoirs remain low, and it will take a wet winter to restore normal conditions.
"It's going to take more than a week or two of rain to undo the effects of nearly two years of below-average rainfall," Environment Agency water resources expert Tony Bishop wrote in a blog.
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