Will the UK get aid?

FC, when that stuff that rhymes with white hits the fans in the posh peoples' houses of Bray, Sonning, Wargrave and the like - THEN we may see the question of aid being diverted to them instead of Asia....,
Jenny

 

There was something on the telly last night @fat controller where the discussed future options for protecting Somerset. One option was an artificial lagoon, that would feature turbines capturing the energy of the tide going in and out so it would be a power station and 'scenic amenity' most of the time, but it would also have gates on it to hold the sea out in the event of unusually high tides and tidal surges.

 

Still say we ought to dig a huge sump in the middle of the levels, it would provide useful quarried materials, jobs while it was going on, an end to this on going problem and a blooming great water reserve for when we run out 3 months later.

 

@clueless - our esteemed leader has just said "money no object" now that it has hit the Thames Valley! When's the next election?

 

On the island of Menorca, they don't have any large body of fresh water (that would be difficult on such a small, fairly flat island). They also go months without rain, but then get intermittent downpours of biblical proportion.

So, how did they get round this problem? The older houses are built with a massive water tank under the cellar. When it rains, the water hits the roof, as it does anywhere else, goes down the drain pipe, all perfectly familiar, then goes to the underground water tank under the house.

The result is that the house has a supply of water, and when the monumental downpours come, the streets don't immediately flood.

This isn't new. They've been using this technique for at least 100 years from what I've been told.

Our government is trying to bring in some form of super new deal for new housing developments whereby the catch and store the rainwater, but they can't quite agree the detail. Yet a financially constrained tiny little island in the Med has been managing it for years.

On the slightly smaller scale, it occurs to me that certainly round here when we get a bit of flooding (thankfully we don't get much here), it is always because the drains are overwhelmed by water collected further up. So while I don't think this trick would have stopped Somerset from flooding on this occassion, it would certainly help with more typical problems. And its simple. If every house had just one, modestly sized water butt collecting the rainwater from the downpipe from the roof, that would make for a lot less water trying to get down the mains drains in one go, and therefore a lesser chance of the drains being overwhelmed and overflowing. Simple really. If the government can find the money to send people to my door every other week to ask if we want any more free loft insulation (I have enough, I had enough before the last free top-up), then I'm sure they can find the money to get everyone set up with a water butt.

 

I do not think 10,000 water butts would clear the Somerset Levels, they would be full the first two days then it would be as it is now

Jack McH

 

Has nobody heard of underground reservoirs? We have some here although they're not on a grand scale and the water, not that we need it here, doesn't evaporate.

 

I briefly caught somet on telly last night about how much water trees drink. Apparent a mature oak drinks either 800 or 8000 (can't remember, but it was one or the other) gallons of water per day.

 

Sandbags needed. Make bags at HM Prisons, deliver sand, fill and get Army to collect and distribute as required,
Jenny

 

Plus

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hyp.9826/abstract

But

and

and

EU grants are making the chances of flooding along the River Severn worse, rather than helping the victims of flooding.

Buying machinery, setting up workshops, training inmates and transporting full sandbags doesn't make financial sense. Sandbags only cost 27p each (incl P&P) from Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006H1MOYQ/? tag=ho01f-21 You can for get 25, enough for front & back doors for only £8.03 delivered http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006H1MORI/?tag=ho01f-21

 

And a nice big fishing lake for are Zigs

And how many unemployed in this country