02/05/2012 Inside Out North West

Well come to a special Inside Out about the drought. Don't be fooled

by the rain in the region, it may have been wet, but the dry winter

caused problems for many parts of the country. Tonight, we ask,

should the north-west be helping other regions? Any amount of water

that falls here should see Cumbria using this as a commodity or

natural resource that can be traded in the same way Saudi Arabia sells

oil. We investigate why some people are still facing drought conditions

even after a month of heavy rain. All that rain as still not

replenished our hidden underground water suppliers. And we discover

what lessons we can learn from the Spanish who had to import water

from the French. That experience years ago in Barcelona forced

everyone to think -- change how they think about water at every

Here in the north-west we have had more rain in the last six months

than any other region in England, say the Environment agencies. It

means the reservoir levels are so high there is no need for a

hosepipe ban. So if we are doing so well, is it time to consider

selling water to other areas facing The north-west has plenty of water.

Our reservoirs are 88% fall and he in Cumbria we have more water than

we need. -- here in Cumbria. This is Seathwaite, a hamlet nestling in

a valley just south of Keswick. And this place is the proud holder of

the title, the wettest place in England. On average, they get about

140 inches of rain water every single year. Back in the floods of

2009 they got a whopping 12 inches in one day, and that is wet. The

Environment Agency called it a flood they would expect to see only

once in an 1,000 years. Hundreds of thousands of people fled their

homes as water poured into their communities, wreaking havoc with

bridges and roads. It may have been a road event, but this county still

gets more rain than practically So given the amount of water that

falls here, should and Cumbria be using this as a commodity, and

natural resource that can be traded in the same way that Saudi Arabia

cells or ill? It might sound like an absurd idea but it has had

serious consideration in the past - - the way that Saudi Arabia sells

its oil. This report from the Environment Agency in 2006 looked a

London. The scheme would run for three and and 50 miles per would

cost in the region of �15 billion. That is eight times more expensive

than developing the water system in the south-east. In the scheme, --

in the eventual time passing, the scheme was dusted off. But then he

came back after Boris Johnson asked in the Daily Telegraph what we

could not bring a surplus rain from the mountains to irrigate and

refresh the breadbasket of the country in the south and east.

nothing is impossible. There is definitely no shortage of water in

the Lake District. I don't see why it shouldn't be looked into.

wouldn't mind us sharing our water with the rest of the country?

at all. They can have as much as they want. Yes, because we have so

much of it here. Way you are standing now can sometimes be a

river. Beneath my feet, a river. You can get stuck and stranded

The I guess if there was a wait to get water to another part of the

country with a shortage, you would welcome it. The Yes, I would swap

that. In a heartbeat. Yeah, for a As a trade-in option, it appeals to

Cumbria County Council's Cabinet minister for the environment of

Transport, Tim Knowles. I think it is a good concept and it would be

incredibly expensive but from the point of view of Cumbria, you have

to think very hard about the impact on the environment in reducing the

amount in water systems. How do you see it working? We would have to

work out the cost per litre, and that would be on top of the massive

investment necessary to move water 300 miles away directly south to

London. That would be a big cost. Of course, Cumbria has been giving

its water away for over a century To the untrained eye, this stretch

of water looks like one of the many lakes that forms the Lake District.

But it is not. It is entirely man- made, or in the sense that two

lakes were joined together to As the cotton mills of Manchester

powered the Industrial Revolution, the local corporation realised they

needed a better water supply and turned to Civil Engineer John

Bateman to come up with a solution. His idea was breathtakingly simple.

He would let gravity do the work to pull the Lake District Water down

hill to Manchester. A concrete and masonry dam was built. And an

aqueduct, or pipeline which runs for 96 miles, and has no pumps. The

water trickles along at walking pace. This is the River Lune, deep

in the heart of Lancashire. This is part of the aqueduct. It is halfway

along the water's journey, and by the time it reaches this point, it

has been travelling for about 18 hours. From here, it flows south,

skirting the Forest of Boland before heading into Greater

Manchester. When it was built, the engineer saw this as a way of

quenching their thirst of the Industrial Revolution. 55 million

gallons a day flow along the pipeline, and after a day and a

half, the water finally reaches its destination. Here, at Eaton Park

reservoir in north Manchester, from where pumping stations send it to

factories and homes -- Eaton Park. But that was not the end of the

ingenious plan. By the late 1920s, he could not supply enough water

alone to Manchester, so another reservoir was created in the Lakes.

Man is changing the face of nature. Through the centre opening in the

giant new dam, water is still running. Soon it will be stopped

and the village of Mark Dale and the farms on the roads in the

valley will be submerged between a It took six years to build the dam

at Haweswater, and then Smardale was submerged. In times of doubt,

it's mostly -- ghostly remains can still be seen, as his video from

1984 shows. They are still So, if engineers from a century ago

can leave us with a legacy that still works today, how difficult

can it be to transfer water from here to the south-east? The friends

of the Lake District think that before anyone considers that, water

company should be looking at ways to better preserve the water we use

and educate people in ways to save and collect it. The overriding

concern is just the practicality and the amount of money that would

be involved. It is perfectly feasible to have a national water

network but it costs so much money and it seems we would be much

better off doing other things that would be more sustainable. You

could use the money for water meters for better shower heads to

reduce water in their home which means they would not be so much

money spent on infrastructure and it would be more sustainable.

United Utilities, the group which manages the water in the region,

told us a national water grid light the gas and electricity network

would not be feasible because the water is too heavy and expensive to

move over long distances. They said they regularly talk to other water

companies and have no immediate plans to share water with other

So what is going on with the National weather and water supply?

We live in a country where complaining about rain is a

national pastime, but we have this drought. How serious has it all

become? We sent meteorologist Nik Miller from the wettest of the

driest areas in England, and along the way he had some myths to

The Lake District is England's wettest place, and looking below,

the word drought is the last thing that comes to mind. It is rain rich,

and the reservoirs, have billions of litres of water. And on an

island where it has not stopped raining for the past few weeks, how

come so much of England is in drought? The met Office is now

looking into what is behind the apparent change in our climate. The

first place they are looking is the jet stream that carries rain

bearing weather fronts across the Atlantic. The jet stream has tended

to be displaced a little further north. By the time the weather

fronts push south into the part of England in particular that is so

short of rainfall, they are running into a high pressure so not really

doing the job we want them to do, which used to add a decent of --

amount of rain on top of the water levels. At this time of year we are

competing with nature for water. Everything around us has embarked

on spring growth. You do not get England's green and pleasant land

without it. But whilst everything around us is turning green, and you

can see the river filling up, what you don't see in some parts of the

country is even more important, and that is underground. And it is the

water underground, not reservoirs, that supply 75% of the most

populated parts of England. 150 miles south of Windermere, and I am

in drought territory in the East Midlands. I am visiting the

National Geological Survey in Nottingham where they are

constantly monitoring the level of England's ground water. Using data

from thousands of boreholes, they have created an underground map of

Britain. If you look at the map, the areas in green, the chalk,

running up into Lincolnshire, to Yorkshire, down the south of

Britain, round the south-east, it is a really important aqua follow.

That only gets recharged by rainfall in the winter and we have

had to relatively dry winters so we have not had the recharge we would

normally expect. Groundwater levels have remained normal in the north-

west but as you move south-east, they have dropped in volume by a

third. In the last couple of years only four months have been

significantly wetter than normal, including the April just gone,

which delivered record rain. To really find out how low our ground

water stocks are, I joined Andy Mackenzie and his team last week to

do a survey. This is the South Downs, in droughts, one of the

driest parts of England. And below me, the most important source of

ground Walker -- water. Today we will find out how far we have to go

down to find that water. It is effectively a giant pressurised

sponge full of water which the Victorians tapped with Wells like

this one at Chilgrove. The water would normally be about 20 metres

below ground level. This is the exciting bit. How far down are we?

It is looking promising. I can see a reflection towards the bottom of

the wealth but we are only at about 30 metres below where we started.

Before long we passed the point where we would normally find water

and the camera keeps descending. One of the interesting things is

that you are seeing really dry walls in the borehole. So if there

was any Recharge happening, you would see moisture, or at least on

the camera the walls would be glistening slightly, but they are

dry. So even though it has been pouring with rain, that rain down

here has not made a jot of difference yet. No, he hasn't. It

would take some -- it would take weeks, or probably amounts of water

to infiltrate, but it's not going to, it will get taken up by the

plants. We are just coming up to 34.4. That is the surface of the

water. So how does it compare with how well it has been before?

have 180 years of records. This is the 5th or 6th driest we have seen

in April. So that is pretty low. The last major drought was in 1976

when one dry winter was followed by a very hot summer. Now we are

saying save water because we will need it. People were forced to

queue in the streets to get water from standpipes. This drought is

different. It is not hot and sunny. It has been pouring with rain. Yet

we are being told we could be in drought until Christmas. No one is

saying that all the rain we are having is making a difference, of

course it is. We had one of our wettest April some there have even

been floods, but that rain still has not reached where many of us

What the Victoria started with Welles was soon expanded to exploit

the resources of the aquifer in a bigger scale. This is activated by

South East Water, supplying millions of customers from pumping

stations. Down there, that is the precious water. It is a very

serious situation, our underground aquifers are very low. We see them

flowing at higher levels and think everything is OK with the rivers,

it is not the case. All-time low levels, we have to pump down to

levels like never before. Full-time Lowes, even worse than 1976?

think it is, I think it's more widespread across the various

regions and our greatest fear is that we have a third dry winter.

The level of recharge in alt ground water is a third lower than it

should be after a two dry winters in a row. We have come a long way

from the Lake District and it seems we are further from the soaking

rain falling above ground. Down here, it is winter rain which

matters. If we don't get enough next winter, then we are all

heading into the unknown. So what options do we have if there is a

third try winter? There are no shortage of people offering advice,

but do we have a strategy in place? We asked David widely to

investigate, and he starts his story in a part of the world where

they are used to these problems. A place where we may get tips on

living with dry weather conditions. This church has to tear in this

valley in northern Spain for more than 500 years, but I shouldn't

even be able to be here because this is the bottom was over -- of a

reservoir. That's by is normally submerged and the thousands of tons

of water are normally here. Spain is going through its worst drought

for 70 years. Reservoirs are drying up and forest fires have been

raging in other parts of the country. Look at the waterline in

this reservoir. Look how high it should be and look where it is,

just below the trees is where the water should be. That is incredible.

Can Spain give us a glimpse into an uncomfortable future? Four years

ago the situation got so bad the taps in Barcelona almost ran dry,

and the City was forced to ship in suppliers from France. It is 3 1/2

million residents in Barcelona who have had to completely change their

attitude towards water. I find it incredible that something as simple

as water had to be transported in tankers into Barcelona. What was

that like? It was a first, as far as I know. Luckily it never was on

a massive scale for a long time, but before that there was a

sensation that it was not going to be easy. If the drought continued

for much longer we would have rations and things would be

complicated. How have you heard that it your life star in the

climate we in? Week became conscience -- conscious of how

precious water was and with the emergency measures more so. The

children became very aware of it, they had an easier time adapting to

turning the tap off all the time. They became the water police.

Through simple measures, such as turning off taps and having time

Towers, -- showers, Barcelona is now on its way to becoming one of

the world's leading cities in saving water. People who use just

107 litres a day, compared to 150 in the UK. Across the city they

have also tried using water from showers to flush toilets as well as

recycling the water in Barcelona's famous fountains. This isn't the

first and went be the last time Barcelona has face drought, but

that experience four years ago forced everyone to change the way

they think about water on every level. This place was the answer.

They built this massive desalination plant. It is the

largest in Europe. By taking sea water from the Mediterranean, the

plant can produce 180 million litres of fresh water every day.

That is still only a 5th of the city's needs, so it is used as a

stop gap when reservoirs are low. TRANSLATION: the city is much more

secure because of this plant but it is not total security. It allows us

to function between rainy periods, and if there is a drought the plant

can produce more. After building Europe's first desalination plant,

40 years ago, Spain is now a world leader in the technology. However,

it is not a perfect solution, the water produced here is very

expensive. This plant uses enough energy to power a small town.

Unlike Spain, which uses most water for agriculture, this is where we

use most of ours, generating electricity in power stations. Most

of the rest, around 40 per cent is used in homes and gardens. However

we used to much, more than many developed countries. As head of the

water resource firm, it is this man's job to find answers. We have

already got one big desalination plant near London. That will be

really important for suppliers in London. I think the likelihood of

Seymour desalination plants in England is quite high. You don't

want to rely on desalination, though. Very expensive and produces

a lot of carbon. We are at this picture ate -- picturesque set of

locks, is it an issue for water companies to transfer water to dry

parts? The Victorians started transporting water, and it

underpins how we deal with water now. A in the future, moving water

around even more, with greater connectivity within the country and

now works, is going to be part of the answer. Connectivity is the new

buzz word. Are we talking about a national grid of water? As far as

electricity is concerned, if somewhere is producing electricity,

you don't get blackouts in other parts, why should we have

restrictions in some parts? We are not talking about a national grid

in the same way, water is very heavy to move and very expensive to

move. If you have water and move it from the north to south, you can

have crowds and the North. You don't want to rely in its exclusive

live. If desalination has problems and we should not rely are moving

it, what is going to happen if we have a third dry winter? Difficult

to say but we would be in a bad place. We have never worked out the

consequences of three dry winters in a row. We have never had it. You

would be expecting measures to try and conserve water. There would be

pipes in the streets, water suppliers would be cut off. They

would have to take buckets to stand pipes. It could be tens of

thousands of people involved. There is no strategic national plant, as

far as I know, to deal with three dry winters. I would like to be

proven wrong, I would like to think we have a plan but I don't know of

one. The plan is based on a hope that it rains. It is a very poor

strategy for dealing with a risky business. Is there a strategy or

not? Caroline Spelman is the environment secretary. We have to

have contingency plans, drought is a natural phenomenon which can

happen at any time. We have seen it coming and have been planning for

it. What we are putting in place other measures to deal with that.

Things like the temporary restrictions on non-essential uses

of water in domestic settings are something that we planned to do in

order to conserve water and make sure we don't have to move to more

stringent restrictions later. billion litres of water, a quarter

of a water, has lost every day. Is that acceptable? We need to

encourage the water companies to reduce leakage and the government

has made that really clear. Shouldn't the targets be more

stringent? Germany and you lose 10 percent of the water. It is the

economic regulator who set the targets. It is our challenge to

meet. The government is also pushing water companies to do more

to connect suppliers across the country. Caroline Spelman says we

need to think differently about the water we use. When you go to a dry

country and you explain to them, in a country like ours, we used to

drinking water for everything. We wash our clothes in it, flush our

toilets, wash up with it, they are sometimes quite surprised. Can you

guarantee, if we get a third dry winter, we will not have water

rationing and standpipes in the street? I am not deluded into

thinking I can tell you how much rain we will get, and it is far too

early to tell yet whether we will have the wet winter we need, but

whereas it is most unlikely we will have standpipes this year, if we

have another dry winter, that becomes more likely. Given the

recent heavy rain and floods in the UK, talk of standpipes may sound

extraordinary, but as they have discovered here in Spain, the world

is changing. Climate change and and is expanding population means the

demand for water will increase and even if the rain comes this winter,

pretty soon we will have to start thinking of drinking water has the

precious and scarce natural resource it really is. So, drought

measures in other areas. What I want to know is what is the

forecast in the north-west over the next week? Diane, can you promise

us and the Sun? I am sure you will be satisfied with the Sun today,

be satisfied with the Sun today, really nice, and tomorrow half of

the day will offer you more. Over the next couple of days, the

sunshine becomes much more bearable as the cloud cover stars to take

hold. It is not just about how it looks but how it feels as well. The

warm air we have had today, the 17 Celsius that he will have tomorrow,

it will be a thing of the past. We will see the cold air pushing him,

everywhere. That is how it progresses over May, looking at

April, a very wet month. Unsurprising the the wettest places

were in Wales and the south-west, 291 mm of rain, breaking long-term

records there. We in the north-west, we are famed for living in a wet

part of the world. How did we shape up? I would say around 90 per cent

of our weather stations reported above average rainfall, which bodes

well in drought conditions. We had to look to Cheshire for the

significant record-breaker, would fit in Cheshire, 134 mm of rain.

This is against the long-term average of 54. You can see why we

smashed the record. The weather, it always surprises you. If we look

back to last year, 12 mm of rain last year. Who knows what is going

to happen as we head through the next couple of months. I can tell

you, over the next 12-24 hours, though. Many parts of the North

West will have clear weather. Temperatures could fall away to

around three or court degrees. Showers in the southern parts,

towns and cities will see six or seven degrees. There will be some

spells of sunshine around, though. I cannot promise they will linger

throughout the day, we have an area of rain which will try and move on

towards the day. The further north, the brighter the skies and the more

sunshine you will have. You will see some up until lunchtime, but

here comes the Rain Again. It will trundle north and try and push

everywhere as we head through the afternoon. As it takes hold some of