To not stick to the hosepipe ban

A lot of golf courses have now sunk their own boreholes, so that the water they use for the greens doesn't come from the mains supply - they are using 'raw' water rather than treated water. They may still distribute it round the site using a hosepipe, but this doesn't necessarily mean it's coming from the mains.

You're going to get roasted on here (probably already have been, I haven't bothered to read the usual Mumsnet scathing hysteria). However, I bet that paragon of truth and integrity, Saint Boris Johnson is not obeying any ban.

Yes you are very unreasonable to keep watering your plants. Like or dislike water companies, but we are on our knees trying to keep up with demand. Hot weather makes the ground shift = broken pipes and burst rising mains. No amount of maintenance can help with that.

So please continue to water your plants whilst I and hundreds of others spend 7hrs a day on top of our day job handing out bottled water...

I know a few smug people claim to use their left over washing up bowl water to water all their plants/flowers

I'm not smug, and I don't water all my plants with light grey water. What I do is use the light grey water I have to water some plants. The rest are watered by hose because we don't have a ban here. I would have thought if you have a trigger spray you would use the same amount of water as you would if using a watering can anyway.

And people saying about the watering can vs hosepipe, an employee from Irish water was there’s always more water with a hosepipe, there’s what they call runoff at the end and it uses liters more than you’d carry about.

eta she said people get more carried away with hosepipes and keep them on longer too

What did I say that warranted a deletion? I can't remember. If I upset someone, I apologise.

I know the Covid restrictions were ridiculous in the end but this was like the people who said because x is doing this I can do y. Whereas because x is doing this you should think well they’re idiots and now I bleeping have to make sure I do something- not the extreme but if a hundred people decide eff it on the basis of those businesses then it’s a free for all

I never get this weird argument! You're still using the same amount of water. Whether you use the hosepipe or the watering can!

It just takes longer if you use the watering can, (a LOT longer in some cases,) and is a lot more effort. Older/elderly people, and people with disabilities find using a hosepipe way easier, and they are entitled to use it.

As I said, we have no hosepipe ban where I am, but if we did I would still use it. I have 100s of flowers including about 3 dozen large sunflowers, like hell am I watering them all with a bloody watering can! I'm using my hose. As I said, I won't be using any more water than if I used a watering can!

I know a few smug people claim to use their left over washing up bowl water to water all their plants/flowers 🙄but that's untenable for me. I have far too many plants/flowers!

Also, as some posters have pointed out, many water companies waste 10s of 1000s of gallons of water a month because of their ancient infrastructure, and leaks, (and not being arsed to fix the leaks or replace the ancient pipes,) and they charge a fortune for water rates. Ours are almost £900 a year! So they have got some bloody nerve telling us what water we can - and cannot use!

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The water companies can go fuck themselves!

All those companies want is the compliant lot to provide them with a chance to avoid investment in infrastructure (including investment that makes emergency measures possible) and a chance to avoid deeper scrutiny.The politicians want no one to question the man made overpopulation of this island, as the locals are too busy logging water buckets around.

My water company, for example, advises running water for 5 minutes every time the tap is opened, instead of investing in lead-free pipes and sorting the issue once and for all. They also offered to continuously deliver bottled water and slashed my water bill, as what comes out of the tap is essentially not safe to consume. To top it off, lead content in water increases in heat and the pipes have numerous pin-prick leaks- as their own worker diagnosed.
Clearly, in their eyes, saving money by avoiding those repairs is still more important than saving the water....
They're having us over.Fuck them. Let it all fail and see if it prompts a change.

before the ban, I would spend 30mins - 1 hour watering my small garden with the hose, carefully watering the base of each of the big shrubs / new trees and each pot. now with the hosepipe ban, the garden tap feeds into a large trug on the patio and I dip 2 watering cans in the trug and walk them over to the plants and water. tap runs continuously for 30 mins - 1 hour and I empty the trug at the same rate the tap fills it. So the plants get the same water, i get a bit more exercise and the same amount of water is gone from the system! But at least the water company is saving me from having to go to the gym.

You can water your flowers with a watering can or is that too much effort.

I use a watering can. Job done

I've been ignoring it for weeks. I have 24 large water buckets that need filling at least twice a day and a load of sweaty horses to rinse off. Fuck doing that with a bucket and sponge. I'd get nothing else done.

I watched the news with the latest on the various conmen and scandals in the world, and then the newsreader said “And now for the hosepipe ban” and I thought “Are you kidding me? She might as well have said “And now, news for the plebs” because that’s how it is.

That's an inaccurate statement, for a start, it would depend on how long you spend in the shower...

Also...

Water Usage Comparison

• Bathtubs: Require a set amount of water to fill up, typically around 120–150 litres (27–40 gallons) each time, no matter how quick you are.

• Standard Showers: (that most people have) use about 10–12 litres (2.5 gallons) per minute. A quick 5-minute shower uses about 50 litres, which is a third of the amount of water you would use having a bath.. Most people will have showers that are 6-7 minutes long or less.

• Power Showers: Use up to 15 litres (4 gallons) per minute. A longer shower of 7-9 minutes will still only use half the amount of water that a full bath does. A shorter one (4-5 minutes) will use even less!

If anyone is taking more than 5 or 6 minutes to have a shower they need to start reducing the time! Spending more time than that is bad for your skin, and bad for the environment/a waste of water. Only time I spend more than 4-5 minutes in the shower is when I am washing my hair - twice a week. (Then I spend 7 minutes in it.)

tl;dr having a shower is nearly ALWAYS a much better idea than having a bath.

And the vast majority of the time, you will use much less water!

Of course someone will now say 'but surely it depends how much water you put in the bath,' but most people will pretty much 'fill it' to the point where their body is submerged, and even if you try and use less water/don't fill it too much, you will still be using more than double the amount of water you would use for a shower - possibly triple the amount.

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Well said.

I can't believe that somebody on here actually asked if flowers are important.

FML. I'm embarrassed for ANYone who has to ask that. 😬

So I think our water company have a massive cheek telling us to conserve water while they are wasting goodness know how much on a daily basis due to utter incompetence.

I totally agree, then their CEOs have the cheek to award themselves a huge bonus. It is so corrupt.

I can see why people ignore the ban

This is the bit that doesn't make sense to me because using up what currently appears to be a finite source won't magic up any when we run out. It is illogical. We are a captive audience.

I would rather protest by refusing to pay for a utility that I am not getting, and refusing to line the pockets of these dishonest CEOs. The water companies should never have been privatised.

IMO public services, public transport and utilities should belong to the people not private investors wanting huge dividends (jumps off soapbox).

Wow. This shit makes folk really angry. Feel sorry for you English lot.

I agree. Thames water has been handing rate-payers money out as dividends for decades without investing in infrastructure. We have had burst waterpipes about four times a year in our village. They mend a bit of pipe and a week later the road erupts about 5 meters further along the same pipeline.

It's hard to take instructions seriously when they are so blatantly one rule for some another for others. We are sticking to the ban, but that's because we care about the environment, not because we have any faith in or respect for the powers that issue the instructions.

We don't have hosepipe ban where we live, but I keep a washing up bowl in the kitchen sink and any water from washing hands rinsing vegetables etc is caught and thrown on the garden. It is astonishing how much light grey water just goes down the drain.

Sorry I mis-read and thought you were proposing charity provision.

I think we should address poverty firstly: by trying to create growth and opportunity (including by public investment), secondly by subsidies for the poorest people, and almost never by stepping in to control prices. I can see some case as a hybrid measure for making the first X units of water very cheap.

Reason for not wanting general price controls is that it screws up supply and often makes things worse.

I know it doesn’t seem fair but all the situations you’ve mentioned are business’ however each of their employees when at their homes will be on the hosepipe ban too so I don’t feel it can really be compared. If they can’t use water then their business goes bust and those employees are out of work!
It’s up to each of us to do our bit, we have a fish pond so when DH needs to do any water changes rather than flushing the water down the drain he’s been draining it into a watering can to do the garden. Mum’s saving washing up water to water her garden.
I do think we should all be very angry about the water leaks though! Fat cats at the top
of water companies are getting their bonus’ while water is being wasted through leaks!!

No I don’t think businesses should be a priority, but people should.
We already have a COL crisis, people are struggling financially, and now it’s being suggested that they should be out of work because the job they happen to have is at a splash park during a drought. The people who work at a car wash still need to pay their rent/mortgage etc. Whether I approve of the type of business isn’t really relevant. If the business has to close the people who happen to work there will need a furlough scheme.

I wish we were more careful with water as a society but it is difficult to make water waste an individual responsibility when it’s a systemic problem (and the companies in charge aren’t filling anyone with confidence!)

(For the record I’m also anti-data centres using fresh drinking water for cooling!)

Interesting that you think I would not agree with you, I am not a capitalist at all and consider myself quite “green”!
I have already said that I think maintaining public green spaces is essential and have mentioned biodiversity a couple of times.
I am a keen gardener and actually have an extensive vegetable garden as well as a flower garden. All the vegetables have been watered with a watering can from my water butt.
My flowers have for the most part survived with very little watering. I often use gray water or save the cold water that comes out the hot tap. In my previous comment I said I think we need to start adapting our gardens for extreme climates.