UK - London's drying rivers threaten the city's drinking water supply
Poor river management means that London is number nine in the list of global cities most likely to run out of drinking water, campaigner Feargal Sharkey said at New Scientist Live
The UK’s capital is number nine in the list of global cities most likely to run out of drinking water, rivers campaigner Feargal Sharkey said at New Scientist Live on 8 October.
“London is now on a list with the likes of Cape Town, São Paulo, Jakarta [and] Mexico City because of the same lack of investment and the same lack of strategic thinking,” he said. The other cities near the top of the list are Bangalore, Beijing, Cairo, Moscow, Istanbul and Tokyo, the BBC reported in 2018.
Sorting the problem requires a lot of money, but consumers, not the privatised water companies, may be asked to foot the bill. “The [UK] National Infrastructure Commission are estimating simply to keep London and England’s taps running over the next 30 years is going to take another £20 billion… of your money,” said Sharkey.
As well as running dry, the UK’s waterways are in poor shape. Only 14 per cent of England’s rivers are in good ecological health. The rest have been ravaged by sewage, agricultural run-off, over-extraction, modified banks and barriers such as dams. Good ecological health means “a good, healthy ecosystem with a wide, diverse range of plants, insects,
