AIBU to be angry about hosepipe bans and whether people will comply?

^This.

Those saying pfft I won’t comply… well you will be. You’ll be made to. We will probably need to buy bottled drinking water depending how we use it.

To answer OP, we have water butts. I’ll use the hose to fill the pool but I’ve only done this once as DD wasn’t bothered and it’s not a huge pool.

You need to contact your water company and request to be put on their Priority Service list

Not to defend them completely ( leakage needs to be sorted). But water companies are not a consultee on planting applications unless the EA or council ask for their opinion so if new builds are built in a low capacity area they just have to manage it as best they can. Not helped by their investment being funded on a 5 yr programme

I didn't say it was. But do you not think they should be putting in the infrastructure to cope with current demands (they haven't) let alone increasing ones? It's literally their job to provide us with water, and they don't. I don't know where you are but it's pretty bad here.

I’m happy to use a watering can I infuse the grey water from the bath fur my plants.

What worries me though is that there is no planning.

The population is surging, new buildings are popping up
everywhere. Where is the water going to come from for all of this with the climate change?

All the water companies care about is profit, most of which goes to overseas investors and extracting water from the rivers.

No investment, no solving the sewage problem.

Not at all, I think a wholesale move away from fossil fuels is needed. But I'm not the one muttering darkly on the internet about fatcat shareholders when I'm reaping the benefits of being one of those fatcat shareholders.

The UK hasn't built a new reservoir for decades. I suspect privatising the water companies may have diverted focus from providing water to making profits.

Hopefully the government will do something and nationalise them.

It is their fault they haven’t built capacity to cope with the predicted number of new builds and predicted population growth

I didn't say it was

It’s less about how we can manage and more about anger that we are put in this position by “fat cats” ( apologies to cats who are not responsible for the mess )

Don't believe the crap you read online. If there is a hose ban it is to prevent us running out of water to ensure we have supplies for the rest of the year and into what could be a dry winter.

Golf courses are businesses so like other businesses they have different rules. We don't restrict other business for pulling on water. All businesses are also on a meter so are paying for every drop used.

A hose will literally use hundreds of litres in a hour, more than your family would use in a couple of days of normal use.

Get your water can out, have a water butt. If everyone plays their part then the ban won't last as long.

Trees don't use surface water. A quick Google says it from well below the surface. Also it will have rained in the past few weeks so below the surface is still damp.

Many large trees utilize deep taproots to pull moisture from 20 to 30 feet down, and in extreme arid environments, some species can draw water from depths exceeding 100 feet

A hosepipe ban is never implemented light heartedly. It is about reducing demand, there is only so much water that can be processed and pumped in a second, a hosepipe uses more water than people think and grass will recover. Use water butts, watering cans, reuse washing up and bath water. All ways to still water your garden without a hose pipe.

It's not the water company's fault there are too many new builds.

It is a sign of how badly managed our infrastructure is that water companies are talking about hosepipe bans after just a few weeks of hot weather, given how much it rains the rest of the year.

It would help if more reservoirs were built as the last new one was in 1992, and I understand plans are in place for this, but why this hasn’t yet been done considering our huge population increase over the last 30 years? I also hope that all these new data centres will be forced to use closed loop systems, or we will have even less water.

well when this becomes routine and we have droughts all because entitled people think that rules don't apply to them and they can waste water we know who to blame then don't we

FFS stop being entitled and put the fucking hosepipe away. it won't kill you to use a watering can.

just because you think we aren't running out of water doesn't make it true, if we continue with the weather we are having then yes we fucking will run out of water and entitled selfish idiots like you will not fucking help, the reservoirs will be dry or near dry especially if we continue to have little to no rain, and this will have a knock on effect over the rest of the year. but I get it, you are entitled and think fuck it I don't give a shit about everyone else, I'm going to continue to use my hosepipe and fuck the local community and everyone else.

you do realise we have very little new reservoirs right? you do realise what happens to them when we have very little rain?

no the bans are in place to try and force selfish entitled idiots like you to stop fucking wasting water.

Can't be arsed with fucking entitled selfish idiots who will be the first to throw a tantrum when they have no water and they have to go and stand in a queue to get bottled water without acknowledging that they are part of the fucking reason that has happened

If you have a private pension of any sort then odds are that you are one of those shareholders.

The water companies can do little when faced with a population of 70m and growing who persist in using far more than they need. Who see water as a resource to play with because it's nice while chucking gallons of it down the drain.

I wouldn’t comply. Not my problem that through mismanagement the water company fails to fix leaks and maintain infrastructure because they’re too busy paying themselves massive profits. Not to mention if it’s fine for a golf course or an AI data centre to use ridiculous quantities of water then I’ll continue to let the kids cool off in the paddling pool and when they’re done reuse the water to water the plants.

I absolutely will comply.

Firstly, not to comply is illegal and you can be prosecuted.

Secondly, water is a precious and finite resource. People saying they pay for it so they'll use what they want, or "but leakage", or similar, won't magically make more water appear.

There is low water pressure in Cambs because demand is up massively and they can't maintain thid level of supply because they can't treat it fast enough. Also water abstraction impacts local chalk streams. It's an extremely dry part of the country, it hasn't rained significantly in months and last summer was also dry.

There's also a lot of building in the area which the EA and water companies and previous MP campaigned against, because of water supply issues. They were overruled because Building Targets.

Yes, I have made changes. I have three water butts, and I've also started collecting handwash water and shower water. I've halved my shower time and even in two minutes collected enough run-off to use to wash my hair, THEN reuse to clean the bathroom, and THEN use it to water a quarter of the tubs in the garden.

I've also got a jug of water in the fridge so I don't waste water running the tap cold,and only flushing the toilet after every other wee.

I feel so strongly about this. I'd welcome a thread where instead of people whinging, being entitled and coming up with reasons for not complying, they could instead share practical tips for saving water and actually pull together to help the environment. Everyone wastes so much water every day.

Read about the current state of the Colorado river and other water disasters.

Completely agree. Shameful that water was ever privatised.
And now water companies are pop saying eye watering executive salaries whilst being loaded with debt whilst asking for bail outs.
We also have ? 15 million higher population than in 1976 with minimal new reservoirs.