By Paul Homewood

Some day, one of our hopeless quangocrats will resist the temptation to blame their failings on climate change. But I suspect we will be waiting a long time!

The latest to join the posse is the useless Rachel Fletcher of OFWAT.

From the Mail:

The days of using tap water for gardening and washing the car must end, the official watchdog warned yesterday.

Rachel Fletcher insisted families should switch to other sources, including recycled water from baths and showers and tanks that capture rainfall.

She said only a minority of homes had water butts and this would have to become the norm in future.

The idea of using treated drinking quality water to water our gardens and wash our cars in the 21st century is no longer considered appropriate (stock image)

 

Miss Fletcher, who is the head of Ofwat, said pressure on supplies was growing because of climate change, population growth and the building of homes in drier areas.

‘We recognise the longer-term challenges,’ she told MPs.

‘We do as a sector need to think about transferring water from one region to another. And we have got to shift the frontier in the technology we are using in delivering water supplies.

The idea of using treated drinking quality water to water our gardens and wash our cars in the 21st century just doesn’t seem appropriate. As a regulator, it is something we will push the companies to innovate on.

‘We will work with government and other partners to do everything we can to make sure we have secure, affordable and an environmentally friendly approach to delivering future water supplies.’

Miss Fletcher said plans to build thousands of homes between Oxford and Cambridge could put impossible pressure on water supplies, making the case for a national grid.

The Commons environment committee also heard evidence from the head of the Environment Agency, Sir James Bevan. He said water leakage reduction targets set for the big suppliers needed to be much tougher.

Sir James added that climate change threatened future water supplies and he backed calls for new targets to ensure the amount of water lost through leakage from the mains should be lowered by 50 per cent.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5944131/Britons-told-stop-using-tap-water-gardening-car-washes-regulator-says-recycle-bathwater.html?ITO=1490

 

The drier area she is talking about is the South East. Below is the annual rainfall data from the Met Office:

 

 

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/summaries/datasets

 

Can anybody see the effect of climate change? Good, because neither can I!

 

OFWAT’s job is to regulate the water industry, so why is this silly woman not doing her job and making sure that water leaks are reduced, and proper investment in storage made?

 

Instead she wants to lecture us about how we run our lives. One is entitled to wonder what her own water footprint is.

Her predecessor was earning £160k pa in 2016, so I doubt if Rachel Fletcher is short of an odd bob or two!

 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/water-services-regulation-authority-ofwat-annual-report-and-accounts-2016-to-2017

 

I somehow don’t see her living in a tiny two up two down, with a tiny patch of garden.