To stick to the hosepipe ban …

I am using a watering can/waterbutt combo to make sure my potted outdoor plants don't die. The lawn and mature plants are fending for themselves. Otherwise I'm sticking to four laundry loads a week plus as many short showers as we like.

So I am sticking to it, but it is annoying when my monthly bill has tripled in the last three years (with no increase in usage) and water mains regularly burst in our area. The water companies usually take weeks to repair them, only for the same ones to burst again a few days later.

But as long as the shareholders get their money, who cares about customers and the environment, right?

The stupidity and selfishness of some posters is shocking.

For those saying “we won’t run out of water”, do you realise it’s not all about the amount stored in reservoirs? There is also an issue with the water companies not being able to treat the water quickly enough to meet increased demand. That’s why some companies have already been reducing water pressure.

In an ideal world, yes we should have the infrastructure to treat more water to meet demand, but at the moment we don’t. They can’t magic up water treatment plants in a couple of weeks.

We have an issue with water now and we need to appreciate that. I don’t fancy having to use standpipes or buy bottled water if the situation gets worse, so yes I’ll be abiding by the hose pipe ban. Given the fires reported in the media, I’d also prefer that the fire service had access to plenty of water to fight those fires. I’ve also told my teens to try to spend less time in the shower. A couple of minutes less won’t harm them, and if everyone did this, it would alleviate some of the issues we are facing.

It’s the height of summer and you’re not washing properly?!

It took south west water 7 days to fix a burst water main in the middle of winter near me. I reported it on the day it happened (I walked past it on my way to work, and it was freezing as it flowed down the hill). It was ridiculous. Yet they want to blame us for water “wastage”?!

I agree with you OP.
Yes I stick to it and also am finding other ways to conserve water (eg collecting shower water for the garden, halving my shower time, having more strip washes instead of showers).

People not taking it seriously are selfish, entitled, and ignorant regarding the challenges of water supply.

Yes, this!

I’m in Southern Water area

There’s been a leak at the end of my road for at least a year that they haven’t bothered their arses to fix, constantly pumping sewage into the sea, fines for environmental offences, prioritising profits and shareholders over investment in infrastructure and a 47% price increase this year means they can fuck off.

I’m not using my hose, I have a water butt and watering can which is fine for the moment but I will fill the watering can from the outside tap at some point - I don’t think watering with a can uses any less water than a hose tbh

We don't have to stick to it as our household is exempt. Blue badge and pets, however my husband uses a can for the plants and hose for the ducks (we need to rinse their area down for health and safety) to try and save a bit of water where we can.

Most people have those squeezy spray nozzles now anyway though so it's not like water is just puring everywhere until you turn the tap off.

Washing up water is great. The detergent kills aphids.

Happy to comply - but I will use the hose to fill the watering can as it will be too painful for my knees to walk back and forth to tap and then back to the plants. I’ll be using the same amount of water as I would filling up with the tap. Technically, I could use the hose as I have a young fruit tree and establishing hedge.

I’ll be a selfish twat until SWW is nationalised and stop putting cow shit in my water thanks

I will stick to it as I don't have that much to water, I will water my little herb garden and my bamboo plants with the can, but as others have said, I wouldn't have known about the ban if I hadn't seen it on social media.

The stuff that Affinity has on their website is crap communication, a map where my area is not on and then in tiny small print at the bottom, all the post codes, where mine is included. If they want people to adhere, maybe invest in some educated communicators.

I will stick to it, but it does irk me that there’s been a water leak getting steadily worse in my road for nearly a month and despite numerous reports and it showing on the Thames water website it’s still not been fixed!

I think my point was that they could also harvest rainwater, and then they wouldn't need to be selfish, they could use their own harvested rainwater.

That reason being that the water companies choose profits over fixing their networks

Out of curiosity, how do you fill your waterbutt?

We don’t currently have a hosepipe ban in our area, but if we did I would comply and just use a watering can to water the garden. Our neighbours use a sprinkler on their lawn, I just let ours go brown.

I think it tends to be selfish people who would go against the ban. Its set for a reason.

The same happens down here. It’s vile. And they think they’ve got the right to tell us not to use our hosepipes?

Ive stuck to it. Took hours to water allotment with tap!

I don't really buy into conspiracies or control.

That's great, but there are still plenty of selfish twats on here regardless who will be the first to moan if water has to be collected in buckets from stand pipes in the future.

South coast-ite here. Pretty much every time it rains, Southern Water mix it with human shit and chuck it in the sea so that we can't swim. You can literally smell it.

I will comply at home but I do voluntary gardening at a church/community centre. There's just too much to water by hand and am not fit enough to carry 100+ watering cans every day. I think business are exempt, so will see if I can still use it at the church. I'll let some plants go (the annuals put in this year) and we never water the grass or anything like that but as it's a charity, we will find it hard to replace some of the established plants and young trees as they were expensive.

I have plenty of harvested rainwater, so no issue here. We had plenty of rain at the beginning of the year, so I just saved a few thousand litres of that. These hot spells are likely to get worse, so I will increase capacity once the heat dies down and I can move aroubd without melting.

Brixham-ite here and it’s why I’ll never listen to them again. They put cow shit in our water and then expect us to not use our hosepipes?!

That is a waste of time if collecting rain water only.
It rains and fills the butt over winter when you least need the water. In the summer once the butt is empty and there is no rain...🙄