Great Britain has a reputation for being an extremely rainy and wet country. And many people think England will never have to worry about their water supplies. That is not true.

The population of the UK will grow to 75 million people by 2050. Climate change is making summers hotter and much drier. More people and less rain may be quite a big problem. Many experts think that UK water supplies may drop dangerously low quite soon. If the English don’t start to take care of their water now, they might be in big trouble in the near future.

An average English person uses about 143 litres of water every day. It turns out that a lot of this water is wasted. To stop wasting water it is important to know where it goes exactly.

London has an old underground water pipe system. There are over 200,000 miles of pipes under busy streets and houses. Many of the pipes are leaking. Experts say that around 23 per cent of the public water supply is lost because of the leaks every year. That’s an enormous amount of water wasted.

Repairing pipes in an old city is extremely difficult, but scientists and architects are thinking ahead and designing cities of the future that will not waste any water at all.

Ultra modern cities will save and store water. The whole city infrastructure will be designed to catch and hold rainwater.

They will be called ‘sponge cities’. What will they look like?

Most modern buildings will have roof gardens where people will be able to relax and grow fruit and vegetables. There will also be trees and grassy areas. All the plants and soil will naturally absorb and store rainwater.

All the extra water from heavy rains will flow down from the roofs to special underground water tanks. There it will be made clean again and stored or pumped to houses.

All the streets will be full of greenery. Trees, bushes, and city gardens will catch water and will not let it escape.

And finally, all the areas surrounding the cities of the future will be extremely green. Scientists will try to keep these areas as wild as possible for plants and animals. This will let water circulate in a natural way.

Every drop of water counts. If we take action now, we will save our water in the future.