The years 2023 and 2024 were the warmest recorded and the trend shows no sign of abating. Now, in these dry, dusty dog days of August, following the driest six months to July since 1976, we are dutifully hanging up the hosepipe, throwing washing-up water on the garden and turning the tap off during toothbrushing.

At least, some of us are — Britain is apparently the most profligate nation in Europe when it comes to water. In addition, no new reservoir has been built here for 30 years and Ofwat, the water-company regulator, has been declared unfit for purpose in the Cunliffe Report .

A recent suggestion to delete quantities of emails — digital clutter consumes millions of litres of water — was subsequently pooh-poohed by veteran tech analyst Gary Barnett but, nonetheless, data centres wi

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