Re-B ‘Caring for Our Water’
In the UK we are fortunate to live in a climate with plenty of rain, but this summer we had a taste of what it must be like to live with very little rainfall; anyone with garden or allotment will know how hard it was to keep plants alive. Thankfully we have had plenty of rain since September.
It was during our hot dry summer that the two strands of RE-B’s ‘Caring for Our Water’ project were born: our ‘domestic’ water piped to us by SES, and the ‘wild’ water from rainfall. More detailed Information about both strands can be found on https://rebetchworth.weebly.com/water.html
Domestic water and preparing for the next dry summer
Deb is leading the ‘domestic’ water strand of our project with the goal to raise awareness of the need to care for our water, and to encourage more efficient use in our home and gardens.
We launched this strand with an excellent talk by Rob Baldry, Water Quality Science Manager at Sutton and East Surrey Water (SES) which provide us with the clean, safe and wholesome water that comes out of our taps. Rob’s talk covered where we get our water from, how it is treated, how it gets to us and how we, as consumers, can be more efficient in our use in the home. You can watch it here.
Deb is leading the ‘domestic’ water strand of our project with the goal to raise awareness of the need to care for our water, and to encourage more efficient use in our home and gardens.
We launched this strand with an excellent talk by Rob Baldry, Water Quality Science Manager at Sutton and East Surrey Water (SES) which provide us with the clean, safe and wholesome water that comes out of our taps. Rob’s talk covered where we get our water from, how it is treated, how it gets to us and how we, as consumers, can be more efficient in our use in the home. You can watch it here.
In summary, we all need to take action on three fronts to reduce extraction from aquifers and reservoirs: 1) use less water; 2) collect, store and use as much rain and grey water as possible (instead of mains water), particularly on gardens and allotments; and 3) to making whatever land surrounds our houses as water permeable as possible.
We appreciate that not everyone can do this, for access, physical capability, technical and/or cost reasons. But if caring for the natural world means anything then those of us who can should do so.
Either way, do join our 23 March Zoom Meeting when we will focus on what we might do to prepare for the next dry summer by using water more effectively in our gardens and allotments. Our Guest Speaker is Janet Manning who was RHS Wiseley’s first Garden Water Scientist. During a 3-year research project with Cranfield University she created a wealth of science-based guidance and resources to support more effective use of rainwater (see https://rebetchworth.weebly.com/mains-to-rains.html ).
We hope that the RE-Betchworth charity will be able to financially support the installation of a number of water butts across the parish. To find out more please join the Zoom talk and contribute to the conversation by letting Deb know about the ways in which you manage to save or reuse your water [email protected]