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A resource we take for granted
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In spite of mass protests against the flooding of Queen’s Valley, we now tend to take its watery identity for granted – though as pictures published in yesterday’s JEP showed, damming a stream does not necessarily mean that there will be water behind the dam.
Unfortunately, although the Island now has impressive water storage capacity – even while work is being carried out at Val de la Mare – an exceptionally dry autumn has meant that there is currently far too little to store.
Jersey Water has provided figures which show that a combination of draining Val de la Mare and the drought have led to a situation in which water available for supply is at just over a third of total capacity. That sounds dramatic enough, but the sight of a sward of green weeds growing on the bed of silt at Queen’s Valley that would ordinarily be covered by 20 feet of water emphasises just how serious the situation has become.
Rain is forecast, but it is still a good thing that Jersey Water has another card up its sleeve – the desalination plant at Corbière, which is being fired up for the first time in five years.
Fuel costs have risen tremendously since the plant was first commissioned and it now represents a very expensive means of producing fresh water. That said, we are fortunate to have the resource at our disposal, even if it lies mothballed for most of the time. In times of truly prolonged drought, it could be all that stands in the way of water rationing.
Meanwhile, the sight of reservoir beds dry but for a narrow trickle meandering through them ought to remind us that water is a very precious commodity and that both hard work and careful planning are required if it is to flow reliably from our taps.
We might also reflect on the high probability of our weather solving the present drought problem in fairly short order. In spite of climate change and new, less predictable patterns of precipitation, we, unlike so many other parts of the world, can be pretty sure that we shall soon be complaining about too much rain.
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