At Exeter, Network Rail is using a water-filled tube to act as a dam to protect the main railway line between London Paddington and Penzance from flooding.

BBC: Braunton 'cut off' by flood water as rain hits Devon

Though a great vote-grabber, the policy encourages farmers to pump water up from their tube-wells both day and night.

ECONOMIST: Punjabis are poisoning themselves

Mr Simplot himself, an avowed lover of skiing, duck shooting and the great outdoors, was attacked in the 1970s for his support for new coal-fired electricity plants along the Snake river and for a scheme to generate hydro-power by diverting water from another river into a vast underground tube.

ECONOMIST: Jack Simplot