This Is What A Drought Looks Like
This is what the effects of a drought looks like – at least in my mind.
There have been recent cries of distress by the Environment Agency because the UK has supposedly been in a state of drought due to shortage of rainfall over a stretch of many months. I don’t mean to ridicule the situation but it’s hard to picture “fish gasping for air” when we just had the wettest April on record (complete with flood alerts) and following that, a pretty washed out start to May (although the last week of glorious sunshine has been great). I was surprised to find the EA’s website reporting that fish have had to be relocated from rivers and other similar measures have been carried out to protect wildlife. Who knew, eh? Unfortunately when I think of drought, I can’t help picturing landscapes that are devoid of any vegetation or water bodies. Famine and mass starvation come to mind. I know life must go on but I don’t quite see a country in drought being one where flower shows are still allowed to carry on (even though they say they have used water friendly plants this year). Maybe my view-point is a little naive. Letting things get really bad before declaring a state of drought would be seen as irresponsible by the public but I think a lot of people were as confused as I was when told there was a hose pipe ban as the rain drenched everything outside. I would like to send an EA representative to a country where they haven’t seen rainfall at all in months and have them explain to the people there what the difference in our situations are – just to see what happens.
Despite my cynicism, I do recognise that the EA are trying to do something worthy. I took some photos of the River Thames at the end of winter when all the drought talk was in the papers and then again a few weeks ago. The view wasn’t very encouraging so if you do want to know “What You Can Do” to help out, click on the link which takes you to the EA’s site for more information.
Sadly, the forecast for this week and weekend is a return to rain – maybe I’ll leave my car on the road for a good natural wash…
The River Thames – a Hammersmith riverside view
March 2012 – then…
and now – May 2012
caeblogs 
Haha!! What a laugh. These people apparently have no clue as to what a real drought looks like. If there is so much rain pouring down, how is there a drought. Sheesh! at least the drought in Texas last year was real. There were dead plants, dried out lakes with dead fish, REAL drought!! They should stick to figuring how to keep the Thames from getting so polluted. lol!!
Lol! Even the news presenters looked confused when they were announcing the drought issue on telly.