This video from OMG (One Minute Geography) Revision looks at provision of water in the UK. The largest water demand in the UK comes from households, and within the household, 30% of all water is used for flushing toilets. However, water management is a big issue in the UK due to some areas demanding more water than other areas. For example, in Wales and north-west Scotland, precipitation levels are very high and population density is relatively low. This leads to a water surplus as there is more water than that is needed. However, in places such as south-east England (and London in particular) there are low levels of precipitation and high population density and this leads to a water deficit and high levels of water stress. In order to combat this problem, water transfer schemes are used to move water from one area of the UK to another. An example of water transfer is from the Edan Valley in Wales to Birmingham. Water quality is also a big issue in the UK and a lot of time, effort and resources are put into the management of water quality. However, this is challenging as there are such a high number of rivers and water storage facilities in the UK. Methods used to monitor water quality include using scientific equipment to measure water quality, water treatment facilities and hosepipe bans are sometimes imposed to ensure we don’t run out of water. Despite all these efforts, water quality is still difficult to manage because of run off from agricultural land and industrial waste that ends up in our UK rivers. To revise this topic, you could create a choropleth map to show both population density and precipitation levels in the UK to identify the areas that have a water surplus and a water deficit. You could also find examples of water treatment facilities that are used to provide us with a clean and reliable supply of water. There are also some challenging past paper questions that you could attempt to develop your understanding of water quality and water management issues in the UK.
