Editing Watermill (section)

==Current status==
[[File:Mill in the woods (31546576571).jpg|thumb|left|200px|Watermill in [[Kuusamo]] (Finland)]]
[[File:Jahodna vizimalom.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Watermill in [[Jahodná]] (Slovakia)]]
In 1870 watermills still produced 2/3 of the power available for British grain milling.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Otter |first1=Chris |title=Diet for a large planet |date=2020 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=USA |isbn=978-0-226-69710-9 |page=22 }}</ref>  By the early 20th century, availability of cheap electrical energy made the watermill obsolete in developed countries although some smaller rural mills continued to operate commercially later throughout the century.

A few historic mills such as the [[Water Mill (Water Mill, New York)|Water Mill]], [[Newlin Mill Complex|Newlin Mill]] and  [[Yates Mill]] in the US and [[Darley, North Yorkshire|The Darley Mill Centre]] in the UK still operate for demonstration purposes. Small-scale commercial production is carried out in the UK at [[Daniels Mill, Shropshire|Daniels Mill]], [[Little Salkeld|Little Salkeld Mill]] and [[Redbournbury Mill]]. This was boosted to overcome flour shortages during the Covid pandemic.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|first=Joanna|last=Partridge|date=7 June 2020|title=Back to the grind: historic mills boosted by flour shortage during Covid-19 lockdown|url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/07/back-to-the-grind-ancient-mills-boosted-by-flour-shortage-during-covid-19-lockdown|accessdate=7 August 2021}}</ref>

Some old mills are being upgraded with modern [[hydropower]] technology, such as those worked on by the [[South Somerset Hydropower Group]] in the UK.

In some developing countries, watermills are still widely used for processing grain. For example, there are thought to be 25,000 operating in Nepal, and 200,000 in India.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://web.media.mit.edu/~nathan/nepal/ghatta/SEI.html|title=Water Mill Battery Charger (Nepal Ghatta Project)|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050307073307/http://web.media.mit.edu/~nathan/nepal/ghatta/SEI.html|archivedate=7 March 2005}}</ref> Many of these are still of the traditional style, but some have been upgraded by replacing wooden parts with better-designed metal ones to improve the efficiency. For example, the Centre for Rural Technology in Nepal upgraded 2,400 mills between 2003 and 2007.<ref>[http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners/crt Ashden Awards case study on upgrading of watermills by CRT/Nepal] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080430235746/http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners/crt |date=2008-04-30 }}</ref>