Wrong Water, Wrong Time

Floods in the Desert, Droughts on the Lawn

Picture going wild at Burning Man in the Nevada desert. What’s the last thing you’d expect? In August 2023, when 2-3 months’ worth of rain fell within 24 hours, more than 70,000 festival goers were stranded by a flood.

Burning Man turned into the Glastonbury Festival. Source: Trevor Hughes / USA TODAY NETWORK. 

And what comes to your mind when hearing Wimbledon? Lush green grass? That classic image was under threat in 2025, when the Grand Slam opened with its hottest Day 1 on record. The ground staff had to use extra water and a wetting agent to stop the courts from rapidly drying out.

This is England. The country where rain is supposedly the national sport.

But 2025 was the UK’s warmest and sunniest year ever recorded. The driest spring in over 50 years had sucked the ground dry. By summer, hosepipe bans covered nearly 9 million people.

A desert that floods. A rainy country in drought. Something doesn’t add up. Or does it?

Besties for Vicious Cycle

We tend to think of floods and droughts as opposites. They’re actually 'besties', but not in a good way.

Here’s a simplified explanation: Higher temperatures pull more moisture out of the soil and into the atmosphere. The ground dries out. Hence the drought, which renders the soil hard and water-repellent.

When the rain finally comes, it tends to be more intense and unpredictable because of accumulated moisture. Now that the soil repels instead of absorbing water, the runoff speed increases, overwhelming drainage and flooding communities.

And because there isn't enough time for the rainwater to seep back into the soil, the soil moisture might not return to pre-drought level. When the next one hits, the situation could get worse. Then it turns into a vicious cycle. 

What happens when it rains after a drought. Source: YouTube

This volatile oscillation between prolonged drought and flash floods is called weather whiplash. Athens experienced it not long ago.

Less than 2 months ago, it was reported that Lake Mornos and Yliki - major water sources for Athens - lost 40% of it's reserve, lowest level in 15 years. Source: X

More floods and more droughts. At the same time. In the same places.

The Time Machine for Water

Aligned with the common belief, our water infrastructure was designed to treat floods and droughts as separate problems. When it rains too much, we pump the water away as fast as possible. When it’s dry, we complain there’s not enough.

Consider this. In the Fens - one of the flattest, most flood-prone parts of England - a single pumping station pumped enough water to fill a 55 million m³ reservoir during just three months of heavy rainfall in the winter of 2024. That water went straight out to sea. By May 2025, the same region was in drought.

So it seems straightforward enough. Capture excess water when we have too much, and store it for when we don’t.

Enter reservoirs.

The UK hasn’t built a major drinking water reservoir since 1991. Three decades of inaction driven by high construction costs, complex planning, intense public opposition, and significant environmental impact.

Now the pressure is mounting. Things are slowly moving. The Havant Thicket reservoir broke ground in 2024. Eight more reservoirs are planned across England, expected to be functional by 2050.

You can take a virtual tour of the Havant Thicket Reservoir. Source: Portsmouth Water.

Among those, Anglian Water’s two proposed reservoirs in the Fens and Lincolnshire are considered “nationally significant”. Still, they won’t be supplying water for at least another 10 years.

Career Prospects

Building a reservoir takes years before a single digger hits the ground. Hydrologists and environmental consultants assess the site. Licensing specialists navigate the planning process. Engineers design the systems. Construction crews move in. And once it’s built, reservoir managers and data experts are needed for efficient resource management.

But the talent gap goes beyond technical roles. We need expertise to address the following issues:

• Skills shortage. A 30-year lull in construction has led to a shortage of people who know how to build modern reservoirs. How are we going to train and upskill fast and economically?

• Not to mention competition from other industries. Next door to Fens and Lincolnshire, the Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk will also need thousands of construction staff. How are we going to draw enough workers in without entering a bidding war or causing delays to any projects?

• Painfully slow and expensive: Judging from the current trajectory, it will take 5 to 6 years before Anglian Water’s two proposed reservoirs even start digging. The costs could double during potential delays. How can we get things moving more quickly?

So it seems we also need more policy professionals, advocates, and communications specialists who understand water and its strategic importance to everything else. Yes, even the Sizewell C will rely on water to function.

Final Random Bits

One of the barriers to building reservoirs in the UK is local opposition.

Here’s my personal experience: Last Easter, I had great fun taking a sailing course at Queen Mary Reservoir. I remember feeling really lucky that this experience was available on my doorstep.

Perhaps this is one direction to address local opposition and speed up approval - to build meaningful relationships between the project and local communities.