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

[hajbajkajlad]

I just saw a couple of photos from the other thread, the hosepipe ban one.
I'm a bit worried about this.

We've been exceptionally warm for spring, I've put out water bowls for animals and watered the young trees planted recently (the leaves were curling it's been so dry)
I haven't seen any hedgehogs this year at all, no frogs and less birds than usual. we have a small pond in the garden that usually attracts lots of visitors.

Aibu to be worried about the wildlife?
I wish there was more that I could do.

The water situation needs better management. With our ever growing population, we don't have room for wildlife anymore in lots of places, unfortunately.

Plenty of birds, bees and hedgehogs in my garden, and there were some frogs, but they have hopped off somewhere. I often feel sad about the general situation for wildlife, but frankly, there is little I can do about it. I just concentrate on making my little patch as wildlife friendly as possible. It sounds as though you do the same.

Reservoirs are a mad made feature. What did wildlife do before humans decided to build reservoirs.

I never understand how people aren't aware of drought conditions and the effect on drinking water availability....

Perhaps because I'm in Cornwall and it's part of daily life and the risk of water controls in summer has been a thing since before I was a kid in the 80s!

I live near a lake and it's shocking seeing how low the water level is currently.

The government haven't built new reservoirs since the very early 90's. With a growing population, more should have been built many years ago. We are going to see more hosepipe bans etc in the future, and the lack of reservoirs doesn't help.

Southern Water publish water levels at their 4 biggest reservoirs. I just looked at them, and 3 of the 4 are quite a bit below the average, one not far above the minimum.

That won't be good for the fish, and the birds that eat them.

What a dick response.
it is humans who have concreted over, intensively farmed, invented flushing toilets, baths and showers, washing machines and patio washers. Humans who have so utterly ruined the earth’s ability to store water. And that is before we even start on climate change.

so what animals did before humans was a) not suffer such harsh conditions
b) hop over to a water source now long, long gone

Calm down. You seem highly strung

It's hardly a surprise. We've had rain the last couple of days (though not all day,) and that's about the first time it's rained enough to get wet under the cars since April, apart from one day, I think. We've had about 5 showers over 3 months or so, and it never got wet under my hedge or anything.

Even if there were better water management, they can't change the fact we just haven't has water falling from the sky like normal.

South West Water for example:

https://www.swlakestrust.org.uk/current-reservoir-levels

But almost all our water comes from rivers, not just theses lakes or reservoirs, which is why it's so soft. And why it's so easy for the public to see the levels.

If you're in the Southern Water area, it's 70% groundwater they have to pump out from beneath rock etc which is why it's so hard. And more difficult to see the levels publicly.

so what animals did before humans was a) not suffer such harsh conditions
b) hop over to a water source now long, long gone

c) die

Animal populations fluctuate in part due to weather conditions. Wet and cold summers aren't great for many small species in particular, neither are really dry ones.

Fully agree
lots of new build housing estates are lacking front gardens so no wildlife highway safe from the road.
no back gardens bigger than 3 fence panels.

Where I grew up the houses were built in the 20s and 30s. our gardens are wider and longer. parks everywhere. I mean feilds and a little tiny play area with swings. These new estes almost all have a park but it's just a small concrete play area and little to no grass.

no trees lining the street either meaning its incredibly hot and there is no relief.

no hedges! where have all the hedges gone?

No have access to running water in our houses? 🫣

We are aware, but it's still a shock!
it has never been this bad in all my life!

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

No shit Sherlock!

agree
did anyone read farthing Wood as a child? That scarred me for life!

several of the tree lines feilds near me have turned into housing estates in the past 15 years. I can't imagine where the animals will go? they mostly died surely.

They've just cleared a massive woodland which had already been slashed through the middle to put in an A road. now the whole lot is gone.

Shopping centre coming soon...

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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.