London is close to running out of drinking water, singer says

London is close to running out of water, singer turned campaigner Feargal Sharkey has said.

Mr Sharkey, 63, of the 70s punk band The Overtones, said that water supplies in London and the south-east are coming under pressure from a growing population and over-abstraction from chalk aquifers.

A report by the London Resilience Forum in 2017 said that drought is a real and present threat to the capital and Sharkey is raising the alarm.

Sharkey said: ‘That’s the thing that’s going to tip the scales. That’s the proper big one.

Mr Sharkey, 63, of the 70s punk band The Overtones, said that water supplies in London and the south-east are coming under pressure

‘Because when people start turning their taps on and there’s no water coming out of it, now you’ve really let the cat out of the bag.

‘There’s no more kicking the can down the road. And it’s nothing to do with the environment, 25 million people in London and the south east are now getting perilously close to running out of drinking water.’

He slammed policymakers and environmentalists for their inaction over the last three decades.

A report by the London Resilience Forum in 2017 said that drought is a real and present threat to the capital

He told The Daily Telegraph: ‘Whatever you’ve been doing for the last 30 years hasn’t helped. It has failed.

‘It’s a pretty shameful report card for the environmental lobby.’

The public are ‘f***ing outraged’, he added. ‘They are really angry and really frustrated, and in the world of politics, that’s two really dangerous things.

‘That stuff loses you elections.’

Sharkey suggested that he would break up regional water monopolies to allow for consumers to make a choice about their supplier.