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Many reservoirs, perhaps the big majority, aren't used for collecting water from rainfall or stream feeders but for storing water pumped up from rivers, not necessarily that close. That way winter rainfall in rivers can be stored for use later in the year - at least that's the theory.
There's a considerable amount of water moved around by pipeline - for instance water falling on the mountains of Wales is collected in the Elan Valley reservoirs and pumped to Birmingham for consumption there - in Birmingham, the ground water no longer needed by heavy industry is pumped into the River Tame which flows into the River Trent but before it gets to the Humber it's extracted and stored in Lincolnshire for local use.
Big urban areas create their own problem - the ever-increasing amount of residential and commercial property stops water being absorbed into the ground yet the same increasing development uses more and more water. It's easy for everyone outside the South-East to sit back, point the finger and say it's your own fault!
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