08humptydumpty
Can someone please clarify somethin for me which has always puzzled me?
After a shower or bath, the water goes down the drain and presumable ends up being recycled or evaporating (I don't know which!) I can see that some water may be lost along the way, but surely most of it is not lost?
I can't give you a definite answer (though I think one of my sons could, so will ask him when I get the chance), but can say what I 'think', though it's just a layman's view and there are probably regional variations too:
Our waste water, whether from run-off, baths and showers or toilets, all goes to treatment plants. Once it has been 'treated', (the solids removed, etc.), the resulting 'clean' water is released into rivers and the sea.
However, there is no guarantee that treated water released into rivers or the sea will, once evaporated, fall as rain in our country, especially with changing climates and weather patterns, so it might very well be lost to us here in Britain.
The thing is, we rely on sources such as reservoirs and aquifers for our household water supply. Generally speaking, these are replenished by winter rainfall or snow melt (as rain at other times of the year often either evaporates or runs straight off into rivers and is lost).
It might seem strange in a country that has seen flooding over the summer that we are still short of water, but I think that in many regions we still are, seriously so, and we really shouldn't take our supply for granted, or abuse it!