If Ashfield's tap water is yellow today, what tomorrow?

Every summer, the same ritual plays out on our community WhatsApp group. Someone fills a glass from the kitchen tap and posts a photograph. Sometimes the water is yellow. Sometimes brown. Occasionally it is green. Before long, others reply with pictures of their own.

Perhaps this isn't happening across all of Ashfield and Mansfield. I sincerely hope it isn't. But where I live, concerns about water quality have become so routine that they barely raise eyebrows anymore.

That's the worrying part. We've started to accept it. We shouldn't.

Recently, Teversal, Stanton Hill and Skegby Neighbour Forum hosted a screening of The National Emergency Briefing, a film explaining the scale of the climate and nature breakdown and the actions that governments, communities and individuals can take to protect us. Its central message is one we can no longer ignore: climate and nature breakdown is not a problem for future generations. It is happening now.

The last five years have been the hottest on record. Summers are becoming hotter, dry spells longer, and pressure on our water systems greater. We need to stop talking as though things will somehow return to normal. The uncomfortable reality is that these summers are likely to be among the coolest we will experience for the rest of our lives.

So where is the urgency from our local leaders?

On 23 July, Ashfield District Council approved planning permission for a Data Centre at Annesley. Residents asked councillors to "call in" the application for closer scrutiny. They declined.

That decision raises a simple question: where will the water come from?

Data Centres consume significant quantities of water for cooling. Estimates suggest the proposed facility could require water equivalent to around 6 per cent of Ashfield's domestic use.

Meanwhile, the Government intends to classify Data Centres as "Critical National Infrastructure". So as climate change drives hotter, drier summers, increasing pressure on water supplies and failures to build new reservoirs, residents have every right to ask “Why are we forced to sacrifice our domestic water supply in favour of Data Centres?”.

If today, people are only sometimes posting pictures of yellow tap water, what will the situation look like tomorrow when demand increases?

The good news is that we are not powerless. Residents can learn more about the challenges ahead by attending screenings of The National Emergency Briefing, which are taking place across the country. Keep an eye on the screening map and, more importantly, demand your local councillors and our MP attend.

If we want leaders who understand the scale of the challenge, we must insist that they engage with the evidence and start planning for the future.

Our water supply is too important to leave to chance.

Kerry Thornton lives on the Ashfield-Mansfield border