Did anyone else know that the reservoirs are running so low? Wildlife must be struggling.

I'd love a grey water system for the garden or toilet flushing. All new homes should have one.

There's meant to be a new reservoir near Portsmouth but it's not surprisingly taken years (decades?) to sort out.

Not really, just very realistic. YOU may not care if there’s water rationing in future, but I do because I have a child.
Humans have become those selfish plague consuming everything in our path.

Yes all new houses should be built with rainwater harvesting systems as standard, so you flush loos with rainwater rather than mains water.

Put bowls of water in your garden for animals,

why are we required to flush toilets with clean potable water, why can we not recycle the washing machine run off to wash cars, patios, conservatory floor, outside window ledges etc., why are new houses not built with this possibility, why do owners of thirsty gardens not have water butts, why do we clean teeth or wash hands under running water, why are we so wasteful

Its difficult to build new reservoirs now, the amount of environment studies needed to build anything doubles or triples the cost of most things - and then public inquiries ....
At a certain point we have to come to the realisation that for the UK to continue to be a place for people to live we have to put what we need (water storage, crop growing land, power generation) above saving the 3 toes newts and bats.

I agree that it’s worrying. Water is taken for granted. Nice to see others helping wildlife with nature friendly gardens and water being supplied for animals and birds.

There’s a new topic on mumsnet under ‘other’ called ‘wildlife, nature and conservation’ which may be of interest to some of the posters on this thread.

Just read another thread in which 20 minute showers seem to be the norm.

Water is blue gold. We're frittering it away with no thought of the consequences. Then wonder why the lakes are drying up, there's empty reservoirs and we're in the state we are.

Yes, water companies should bear responsibility for mismanagement. But we're all should bear responsibility and start treating our beautiful planet with respect.

If Mother Earth was a poster on AIBU, we would all tell her she was being appallingly mistreated and the thankless ingrates (all of us) are all completely U.

Thankfully new govt is tackling that: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-steps-in-to-build-first-major-reservoirs-in-30-years

OP, you are helping already. Spead the word. see what your local wildlife trust is doing. many councils are reducing mowing or mowing paths only to encourage wild plants, which help retain insects birds and mammals, providing food shelter and water.

of all the problems we have as a society, this is one where individual actions can make the most difference.

In the scheme of things the devastating loss of wildlife is one thing really worth being highly strung about.

Just because extinctions happen doesn’t mean it’s right to make them happen- bizarre argument

people die so it’s ok to kill them ? No? Thought not

New build front gardens are criminal IMO. Their front gardens barely sustain a small shrub.
As well as lack of biodiversity the crammed in houses and increased concrete surfaces must really heat those homes up in summer.
If I was in charge they'd all have gravel parking and electric charging for two cars. Small shrubs and grassy area (can be tiny as it's out front) and a micro pond. As well as footpaths and wider roads so kids can play. (Yes, I don't know where this money is coming from and I'd last 5 minutes at the local council before I got sacked for moaning about no one taking green issues seriously).

You're not a weirdo @BeamMeUpCountMeIn . You're in a big club of millions of us who create places for wildlife too. It's so rewarding when you see the animals visiting. If you build it etc etc.

No offence but your life time is so insignificant compared to the age if the earth and its cycles that your observations are largely irrelevant. The human race has
only been around a couple of hundred thousand years- again insignificant in the grand scheme of things. The earth will be fine. Hedgehogs will be fine. Or they won’t. The history of the earth is the history of extinctions of which there have been countless. Now the human race - the only event question really is what we do to control our own destiny. When are we going extinct?

A whole section of my small garden is left to grow wild and there are lots of butterflies.

I have not been watering my plants (to their great detriment) as the local reservoir is low and there is often insufficient for human needs - we had 4 days without water at all recently.

20 million more people over the last decades and no additional reservoirs = no water!

That's a good point about the hedges. Along my row of house every single one has fences across three sides.

Hedges would at least allow wildlife to slip between gardens for food and water.

Some more reservoirs need to be built thats for sure. I think they should also start making pipes exclusively for rain water run off and led these directly to reservoirs, rather than having them mix in with the sewage pipes. Also bonus off not releasing raw sewage into the seas when the system gets overwhelmed during storms.

Hedges in agricultural areas have been removed over many years to make fields bigger and more efficient for farm machinery. I think farmers may have been paid to do this

As always, it’s complicated but some reasons for water shortage are: mismanagement by privatised Water companies, huge amount of water lost to leaks.

Different weather patterns; when you have intense rain following a lot of dry weather, the ground can’t absorb the rain and it just runs off into the street drains.

More and more hard surfaces from more buildings and more paving over of front gardens for cars, and back gardens for patios etc. On a paved surface, rain can’t soak in and gradually trickle down to the water table. So then we need to water what’s left of our gardens from the mains supply. Very little rainwater harvesting

Higher population using a lot more water per person than, say, when I was growing up 50 years ago.

Don’t agree with PP who said we don’t have room for wildlife in many places. We can definitely continue to protect wildlife and make a space for it if we manage things a bit differently, and consider wildlife needs in planning the environment.

I feel like the weirdo in my street as no one else has wildlife flowers. Just some crappy aldi specials chucked in planters that don't attract wildlife. I had four bumble bees on one sunflower alone yesterday.
I'm probably the only one who puts water put too. The birds and hedgehog drink from it.

No shit Sherlock!

So depressing. And yet we keep hearing that our population is too low.

No have access to running water in our houses? 🫣