After a long hot summer, the need for climate change resilience is even more important.
As we go into a drought-with the Gloucestershire source the great River Thames dried up-the need for new reservoirs to conserve water is vital.
It seems amazing to me that the last reservoir for public water supply was built in 1991.
The warning over the need for more reservoirs comes from Sir John Armitt, the highly respected chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission.
Four years ago, his commission called for more reservoirs, and according to the Sunday Telegraph, warned that such schemes “must be planned before they are needed”.
He pointed out that it takes more than ten years “from the decision to build to being able to use the water supplied”.
The problem, here of course, is opposition to new reservoirs by local residents—that cannot be allowed to happen for the sake of local resilience.
And on top of the drought as the energy crisis deepens, businesses are rapidly trying to hire back-up generators so they can keep the lights on over the winter amid fears that gas supplies will now run low right across Europe.
Resilience is the key, and it is important that business is helped with the rocketing cost of industrial energy-said to be higher than other countries including part of the EU.
Failing to do that will mean that many firms could lose market competitiveness.
