How in Belgium there are water shortages after 3 weeks of good weather and Spain/Italy,.. where the sun always shines there doesn’t seem to be that big of an issue

Question

How in Belgium there are water shortages after 3 weeks of good weather and Spain/Italy,.. where the sun always shines there doesn’t seem to be that big of an issue

In: 3

Answer 1

Countries with a lot of rain (I’m speaking here as a Scot – this applies in Scotland) use surface water as their mains drinking water. We have huge reservoirs that are generally brim-full of water year-round. I imagine Belgium, being coastal and more northerly, is similar. This works perfectly until you get 3 weeks or so of dry weather, especially if it’s hot so people use more water to keep cool, when the reservoirs dry up.

Compare that to France and Spain, for example, where there isn’t enough rain for that at all. So they drill the water table – this means they have water year round, but they have to keep boring deeper and deeper to access water because they’re using it faster than it replenishes.