Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Water metering should be introduced across the UK to help tackle water shortages, which will only get worse unless action is taken now, Britain's civil engineers say today.
A metering system that charges households more for high water use for non-essential activities such as cleaning the car, with "social tariffs" to protect vulnerable customers, is one of a number of measures urgently needed to relieve Britain's growing water crisis, according to the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).
These range from building new reservoirs to making it easier to share resources between water companies and encouraging homeowners to save water. In its report entitled The State of the Nation: Water, the ICE calls for a special task force to be set up to produce a plan for securing the country's water supplies by 2014.
This year's drought has highlighted the problems affecting the UK's supplies, which, despite the recent heavy rain, are at a "critical" point, the ICE warns. "We are a populous nation facing a growing gap between what we can supply and what our water users need," said Michael Norton, chair of the ICE water panel.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments