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How deleting your old emails could help England avoid major water shortages
Deleting old emails is one way environmental bosses say people could help England avoid a water shortage in 30 years' time.
The Environment Agency says the country is face a shortfall of nearly five billion litres a day if urgent action is not taken.
The regulator claims an increase in population, up eight million by 2055, will lead to a big rise in demand for water, for everything from washing clothes to leisure activities on golf courses.
At the same time, bosses say climate change will reduce the amount of available water due to hotter, drier summers.
And they say the building of more UK data centres, driven by a demand led by the emergence of AI, could also have an impact, as each centre use a large amount of water to cool systems down.
It is estimated that large centres use around 360,000 litres of water a day, report
Among five small steps the public can take to help stop a water shortage, the EA say they can delete old emails that take up space at the centre, which are predicting to make up 6 per cent of UK energy consumption by 2030, according to National Grid.
Other measures are shortening showers, turning off taps when brushing teeth, using full loads for dishwashers and washing machines, collecting water for garden use.
The EA also wants water companies to manage demand for water from households and businesses, and halve the amount of water lost to leaks.
It also says supplies will need to be boosted by building new reservoirs, desalination plants which turn seawater into drinking water, and schemes that can transfer water from wetter parts of the country to drier areas.
EA chairman Alan Lovell said: 'The nation's water resources are under huge and steadily increasing pressure. This deficit threatens not only the water from your tap but also economic growth and food production.
'Taking water unsustainably from the environment will have a disastrous impact on our rivers and wildlife.
'We need to tackle these challenges head on and strengthen work on co-ordinated action to preserve this precious resource and our current way of life.'
The warning comes in the Environment Agency's national framework for water resources, published every five years and setting out the actions needed by utilities, regulators and businesses and the public to manage under-pressure resources.
It is published after England's hottest spring on record, and the country's driest for more than 100 years, with the North West and Yorkshire in drought and some reservoirs at extremely low levels.
