I'm getting a bit fed up with the authorities telling us that rain in summer
is no real help for our struggling(?) water supply industry. (Due to
evaporation, transpiration from trees etc.)

A few days ago we had what I guess was a cloudburst, and I'd estimate that
the rainfall rate maximum was of the order of 6in/hour. (This is based on
the observation that a wheelbarrow in the garden which was 1/2 full before
the storm was full to the top and overflowing after around 10-15 minutes of
torrential downpour, and I've tried to take the shape into account. (At
the same time my gutters were discharging huge quantities of water where
their walls were slightly lower than elsewhere. Very dramatic, caught it
all on video.)

So, seeing all this water go to waste via my garden and presumably, the
local River Great Ouse, I started thinking about how we could improve the
storage of water in these downpours and flash floods. In domestic gardens,
we could increase the number of water-butts dramatically and arrange that
when one is full, others are then filled. In Milton Keynes we have a number
of balancing lakes designed not to store water for local usage (other than
as nature reserves, boating lakes), but primarily to reduce flooding down
stream of Milton Keynes.

I think the point I'm trying to make is that simply letting summer flood
water flow un-impeded into the river system is wasting a huge resource, but
apart from lots of water butts, I can't think of any better way of storing
it. Is there more that could be done by increasing the number of
underground resevoirs?

Any comments? Normally plenty of experts here!

--
M Stewart
Milton Keynes, UK



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