Britain Could Run Short of Water by 2050, Official Says

To the casual observer, Britain -- an island nation that's no stranger to rain -- could not get much wetter. From a report: But, as it turns out, that's a fallacy. And if preventive steps are not taken, in less than three decades, Britain might run out of water, the chief executive of the Environment Agency, a public body responsible for conservation in England, said on Tuesday. 'On the present projections, many parts of our country will face significant water deficits by 2050, particularly in the southeast, where much of the U.K. population lives,' the agency chief, James Bevan, said at a conference on water use.

In about 20 to 25 years, demand could close in on supply in what Mr. Bevan called 'the jaws of death -- the point at which, unless we take action to change things, we will not have enough water to supply our needs.' The reasons, he said, were climate change and population growth. And he called for a change of attitude toward water conservation to help tackle the problem. 'We need water wastage to be as socially unacceptable as blowing smoke in the face of a baby or throwing your plastic bags into the sea,' Mr. Bevan said. Many in Britain, citing the often rainy weather and expressing frustration with the infamously high levels of leakage from underground pipes, tend to belittle warnings about water shortages.

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