Not a single mention of the lack of reservoir capacity, with the last major reservoir built in 1992. Population has grown by 12 million / 21% since.
So turn the tap off while brushing your teeth and delete your old emails, and all will be fine.
So turn the tap off while brushing your teeth and delete your old emails, and all will be fine.
a) only part of the solution (water reuse schemes can be much cheaper and more effective) b) really difficult to build! Finding an appropriate location (google the Tryweryn reservoir in Wales for an example of the consequences of building one in a problematic location), planning constraints, environmental impact and subsequent pushback from locals and environment groups etc etc.
I don't disagree the UK needs more of reservoirs but they ain't trivial things to build. A good overview in this news article here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2k147dkgx8o
More reservoirs are unavoidable. There is no alternative, "reuse" schemes are gimmicks.
Most of the issue though is the water companies funnelling revenue to shareholders and not maintaining the network, so they lose an awful lot of water through leaking pipes.
The privatisation of critical utilities and infrastructure was such a stupid move.
That said, the recommendation is nonsense, emails and photos make up a tiny fraction of the cooling requirements for data centres.
Overall this is "just" a question of infrastructure, which means long term investments that have dried up (pun intended!) decades ago.
If these activities were not capped, the companies are naturally incentivised to build more to boost their regulated asset value, which means they can make more money.