What a waste (From York Press)

What a waste

9:17am Tuesday 2nd October 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter

LAST week in York we witnessed the near record flood levels from the River Ouse and my sympathies to those who suffered.  As someone who lives a few miles downstream at the village of Acaster Malbis, I am always saddened and annoyed to see all this excess water going to unforgiveable waste.

There is a weir at our village, and beyond this point the River Ouse is tidal. The tragedy is that billions and billions of gallons of all this excess rainwater is being lost forever and going straight down the plug into the North Sea, day in and day out. It’s criminal.

What an appalling waste of an essential element of life? Not only that, but water is a valuable commodity. This Government wants to kick-start the economy so why doesn’t it start a major development to stop the damage of floods and instead feed the contributory rivers into a new reservoir upstream and develop an effective pipe system for a national water grid?  We need emergency diversions of flood water.

They could then sell this water at a massive profit as it was supplied completely free at source to the private water companies and put the revenue into the Treasury.

Keith Massey, Mill Lane, Acaster Malbis.