After this drought, there will be another one: here are 10 things you should know

theguardian.com:

With more than 30 million people in England and Wales facing a hosepipe ban, and thunderstorms expected but no meaningful rainfall likely for many weeks, it’s worth asking what we have learned so far in the great drought of 2022.

Here’s a bit of a list, by no means complete.

Water companies leak more than 3bn litres a day. That is enough to supply almost 22 million people with their daily water needs of around 142 litres. In some areas, companies are leaking nearly a quarter of all the water they are expensively treating. Thames Water is the largest and the worst company of all, losing more than 635m litres of water a day. All companies regularly pledge to reduce leaks – as they have for many years – but many expect to make cuts of only 50% in the next 20 years. Ofwat figures show that leakage rates have more or less remained the same for 20 years. So much for 20 years of promises.

England and Wales are the only countries in the world to have fully privatised their water supplies. Following intense international grassroots opposition from the 1990s onwards, all other countries retained some state control over pricing, investment and quality. The evidence suggests that privatisation in England and Wales has led to higher bills, little or no reduction in pollution or waste, and no greater water security. That’s called progress.

Climate change is a growing part of the problem, but so, too, are underinvestment, greed, mismanagement and failed regulation. According to Andrew Sells, the chairman of Natural England from 2014 to 2019, Ofwat has allowed the water companies over the past 20 years to borrow at unsustainable levels, while paying out excessive dividends to shareholders rather than investing in capital equipment.