Drop the Tap and Back Away, Punk

England's water crisis deepens (or should that be "gets shallower"):

A drought order has been granted in England and Wales for the first time since 1995, banning the non-essential use of water.

Under the six-month order, Sutton and East Surrey Water can ban car washing, the filling of swimming pools and watering of parks and sports grounds.

I find it absolutely amazing that in a wet, temperate country we struggle so badly to supple water to our homes. But then, perhaps that's the problem? We're far too complacent about the issue, so when extreme conditions hit, our inadequate, lazy, leaking pipes dry up and leave us to suffer.

If London ends up with standpipes during the summer, I'm decamping to Suffolk for the duration.

(Bonus Fact: the heatwave and drought of 1976 saw me appear in the press for the first time, in a local Manchester paper. I was in a paddling pool, along with my little brother and my mother. Mum was in a bikini, of course, which one might suspect was the main point of the shot.)

Technorati Tags: drought, hosepipe ban, water