"Half of Britain is now officially in drought, in the worst national water shortage since 1976 – a situation that may last until Christmas or beyond.

This is not just about Britain, but several countries: Surrounded by water, yet not reliant on purifying enough of that water if necesarry? Think ahead gov's!

Don't think we have a drought here though... or do we... nah.

I always blamed the ugliness of british women on the amount of rain and lack of sun.. so will this improve the situation of britisch women?

I doubt dehydrated British women would look any better than what we have now :p

Everything is fine here in ireland!

If its the worst drought since 1976 doesnt that mean 1976 was worse ?

So if we are entering a global water crisis (maybe) right now and not 35 years ago what is this based on ?

That there are droughts on earth and continents/countries with less water ?

Global warming should ensure that the Arctic melts and more water condensates and thus more rain falls.

We need to work on desalinization technology. Of course, that requires a lot of energy, which we also must find.

As for the OP, as people increases and water supply remains constant, then yes, a crisis point can be reached.

Mike from Morgantown

Uh, the problem in the UK is not rain it is leaking. If the leaks were fixed a hosepipe ban is not needed.

"Thames Water, one of seven companies imposing a ban, loses 665million litres of water a day. Its 25.7 per cent leak rate is five times higher than the five per cent that will be saved by the hosepipe ban."

The rest of the world: desalination and pipes. Now the water is there but it's really expensive, which means it can be traded like any other resource.

we just waste too much. i read anywhere about the water consume in england which was even higher than in germany and i think we waste a lot of water here. everyone wants to have his garden greener than green, many still have very old showers which waste a lot and then golf... golf is horrible, just look in spain where farmers have no water anymore but they have 100 golf clubs with a wonderful green lol.

i think we could easily reduce the consume drastically if we just would try to. but too many don't care if they can save some litres here and there very easily (industry as well)

From an article on the BBC that i read a week or two back, a much better idea would be to redirect treated water from sewage work (ie its had all the sewage taken out) back into the water supply instead of dumping it in rivers. Honestly, I don't understand why this isn't already being done.