A brief extract for your perusal:
Britain was blazing. A hot hard sun had been burning the ground for months. On the news there were stories of farmers giving up their crops. The whole country was running out of water. Along the streets of the nation short stout pipes were being installed on the pavements. These were standpipes, intended to replace the usual domestic water supply. The newspapers warned of water supplies being cut:
“Very soon you will need to collect your water from the standpipes. You will be allowed ten litres a day.” These were chilling headlines. People on the television made cries of “ridiculous” and “dreadful” about the way the water crisis was being handled by the government. All around posters were giving advice about using water.
“Make your water work!” they said. “Use the water from your bath to clean the floor or water the flowers.”
There were stories of people being arrested for using hosepipes in the middle of the night. Leaflets were being put through doors. They warned of wasting water. Across the country, supermarket lorries were being hijacked. At motorway service areas, gangs would break into them while they were parked and steal all the bottled water. In cities, business men were beginning to buy water. They would pay a small fortune for tanks of drinking water and hide it away for themselves… On the corners of streets criminals set up water auctions. Men with sharp faces and sneering half-smiles sold their stocks to the highest bidder. Some people would fill up empty water bottles with white vinegar or some other sort of nasty clear liquid. They would then sell it as water. They would have some genuine bottles to show as samplers, before selling litres and litres of something totally undrinkable. They were called “Water Pirates.”
People could be seen walking around the shops carrying signs. They said:
“The end of the world is coming!”
“Our planet is dying!”
“It’s all your fault!”
Around the nation rivers were being reduced to small trickles of water. In the countryside there was a smell of rotting fish, as they lay dead and decaying on the dried river beds.
The government declared a national crisis.