The thing about water abundance in the UK is that there is famously plenty of rain.

It is also spread throughout the year which is great for agriculture but bad for organising outdoor social events.

This year has been an exception, with a long dry summer.

Since we have always had plenty of rainfall the efficiency of water delivery and drainage systems has not been that good, but it didn’t have to be.

Faced with the uncertainty of climate change and the possibility of drought it would be prudent to fix the water systems and make it as efficient as it can be.

That is going to cost a staggering amount of money, which the owners of the system (all private companies) are unlikely to take on unless they really have to.

Of all the rainfall that go into reservoirs, a third is lost on its way to the tap by leaky pipes.

There might not be much we can do personally about that – but we can do something about the waste that happens our side of the tap.

The usual suspects are watering lawns in hot spells, leaving the tap running while brushing teeth – or my own failing, leaving the tap running while waiting for the water to warm up when doing washing up.

One way of helping here is catching a watering can full of this water instead of letting it escape. I’ll try that technique myself.

Keeping veg growing through summer takes a lot of water too. By using water butts fed from rainwater, that’s a little less water coming from the tap.

As for the lawn turning yellow in summer, well that’s a good problem to have, and it won’t need mowing!