Reports that we as a county are once again heading for water shortages (Tuesday’s Oxford Mail) beggar belief.

Questions need to be urgently answered. Why are our rivers and tributaries still clogged with silt, weeds, rubbish and fallen trees? Why are the riverbanks crumbling into the watercourses?

If properly-managed river maintenance, including dredging that was once so very common, was still taking place, the depth of these watercourses would still be high, with water readily available to top up reservoirs.

Why are there now so many incidents of homes in danger of flooding after two days of rain?

The answer, of course, is that with every stream and river in this region clogged solid, some even grassed over and closing up, rainwater in this county flows out of these closed-up streams, on to roads then into homes before heading back to the sea. Hardly a single drop is saved or even used in this county at all.

I spent my childhood around the River Thames in the 1950s and 60s and watched regular dredging each year. In the 15 years I lived near the river I never witnessed flooding nor experienced drought.

College barges moored until the 1970s at Folly Bridge actually floated and moved when other boats made a wash. Now if you wanted to place a barge at the same spot, it would be out of the water, sitting on silt and mud which extends out to a shallow river bottom.

The Environment Agency is of course at fault and heads should rightfully be rolling.

The Victorians got it right, so why should we be expected to accept the pure failure and gross incompetence of those in charge now?

With the lochs in Scotland and the lakes in Cumbria brim-full, the question has to be asked as to why our Government is spending and wasting such a huge amount of taxpayers’ money on the high-speed rail link project, which will harm so much of the environment and benefit just a few, when a countrywide network of pipes able to bring water from one end of the country to the other would very clearly benefit every single person living in the whole of the country, without damaging the environment?

Thames Water could help by repairing the still high number of leaking pipes but I expect that all they are interested in is a water meter for all, then watch the bills go through the roof, the same as gas and electric prices.

RICHARD ANDERSON Wood Farm Road Headington Oxford