After the UK’s hottest ever summer on record, when much of the country has experienced a fraction of its normal levels of rain, many regions continue to be in drought. This water crisis has led to parched reservoirs and widespread hosepipe bans. Yet early autumn heat has been making way for some serious downpours.

While the country desperately needs rain to break the drought, we are also facing a future where warmer, wetter winters are putting millions more people, homes and infrastructure in the way of potentially damaging floods.

Have we got too much, or too little water?

Drought and flooding are not opposite emergencies. They are two consequences of an imperfect and misunderstood water system. By looking at four places where our lives directly intersect with water, it’s possible to see the impacts of too much, or too little, almost anywhere you look.

When you want a cup of tea, you don’t stick the kettle out the window and wait for a passing shower. Instead clean water appears when you turn on the tap over your kitchen sink. A modern-day miracle? Behind your tap lies a long chain running many miles, through networks of pipes, storage tanks, pumps and reservoirs.

This network of human-harnessed........

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