To fill my pool before the hosepipe ban starts?

[SooticaTheWitchesCat]

There is going to be a hosepipe ban in our area from April so AIBU to fill up my 8ft paddling pool now before the bans starts?

It has a cover and I can keep it clean through the summer with cleaning tablets and top up with a bucket if neccessary.

I just want my girls to be able to play in the water if it is a hot summer and I wont be able to fill it after the ban come into force.

But if I fill it now will that be cheating?

If you don't actually care though, why bother asking?

Sootica, probably because Turkey has lots of desalination plants.

Isn't it really expensive to turn salt water to drinking water?

There was a debate about this on Jeremy Vine on Monday. The water woman on there was saying this was more of an appeal to people's goodwill and concern for their communities than anything which was likely to be legally enforced. She was not encouraging people to report their neighbours, but maybe to have a quiet word with them!

Desalination is very expensive in terms of energy use as well as setting up the plants initially. It is the only option is some arid populated areas like parts of Turkey, Canary Islands, etc. but it is not cost-effective here.

I didn't even realise how wasteful of water many people are until I started mning! The amounts of washing done are incredible! People who shower two or three times a day! I was naive.

I don't think in OP's case this is particularly bad - not as bad as my git of a neighbour when I lived in London who filled and emptied his large 'paddling' pool DAILY during a hosepipe ban, as he didn't have the filtration etc, as well as washing his car almost daily, and was a total clean freak. It's more important to think of your total consumption over the year and get into better habits. Just remember even when there is not a water shortage, producing clean drinking water for flushing toilets, pouring onto your garden, washing a few once-used towels, is still using energy and affecting rivers and water tables.

We had a situation on holiday with friends once where the house had a spring fed supply that had failed due to drought. The owner was having to fill the header tank by carrying huge 50 litre containers one at a time up the hill from the road, quite a few of these per day. The other family saw no reason to cut back their daily baths, loo flushing and washing machine use. We had to avoid a falling out but it was real food for thought.

The only thing that fills up the reservoirs and groundwater in the UK is rainfall, in their catchment area, and a bit of input from re-used water. You can't really move water from one place to another as you would have to pump it uphill. So the Thames basin for example will get a certain number of inches of rainfall this year and that's your lot, folks. Regardless of leaks, shareholders and prices, none of these things will make it rain more.

I'm sure the OP could work out how many toilet flushes/baths to cut back on to compensate for the paddling pool.

God, some of you just don't get it do you? We are only in a drought situation because of bad water management, not lack of rainfall. There has been more than enough rain to sustain the area, if all leaks were fixed promptly and more provision was made for retention of water, ie not selling off land earmarked for reservoirs.

As I mentioned previously, because the industry has been privatised, the water companies have a duty to their shareholders to provide them with as big a profit as possible, and I really object to not being able to have a pool full of water for the summer just because of the fat cats who have shares in these companies.

We bought a pool last year not because we're so rich, but because we can't afford holidays in the summer, so thought this would be a good idea as the children can play in it every day of the holidays. That's what I meant by having to suffer because of the shareholders Arielnonbio - not suffering in grand scheme of things, but what the children were looking forward to most about the summer.

We use water very carefully otherwise - 3 water butts in the garden for watering, shallow baths, have a shower timer etc etc. I don't think I'm being unreasonable. I'm sure those that spend 10 mins in the shower each morning will be wasting far more water than will be in our pool.

Touched a nerve?

It was a badly chosen word then wasn't it, particularly when you bear in mind the real suffering that a lack of water can bring.

Yes it has touched a bloody nerve; you STILL don't get it do you [sigh].

Maybe you're one of those shareholders though.

Nope I don't get it, nor am I a bloody shareholder. I don't have any shares in any company, including a water company. Privatising rain is nonsensical, as is filling your pool with it when there is a water shortage.

Filling a pool with water from the taps is what I meant. Filling a pool with rain of course would be fine.

Did you know Jerusalem gets less rain that Cambridgeshire?

There's an interesting article here about the water companies involved. Seems as though Anglian Water lose 230 million litres of water every day through leaks! That really is shocking.

Depends where you live, if they announced a ban here i'd ask "where the fuck did all the rain go" but I think our reservoirs are all pretty full and supplying Birmingham....

[stands up, gives rapturous applause to sherlockholmes]

I believe in conserving water but I do not believe in the hosepipe ban. It is as Sherlock says, down to bad management. Water companies are losing in excess of 300 million gallons of water every single day ..... With zero penalties and their management get huge dividends. New housing developments are sprouting up everywhere and the infrastructure cant cope ... Clearly. Why should my children be denied the right to splash and play in a paddling pool? It is educational and recreational. Water companies should give me a fucking rebate.

La la la, hosepipe ban doesn't mean you can't fill your pool, la la la, check the legislation.....obviously no one took any notice when I first posted this so I don't know why I'm bothering again but I can't believe this thread is still going. Dull.

why on earth do people wash cars? They are outisde things.

The right to splash and play in a paddling pool? You have a very strange idea of what a right is.

I agree OO7. It all depends on your definition of "rights" really doesn't it? The fact is that there is not much water out there for current demand, whatever the cause. Doesn't matter whether that's because of inefficiency, or a lack of rainfall, or both. That is the situation. Someone bleating on about the rights of their kids to splash around in a pool when people's supply could be cut off and they have to stand pipes won't get much sympathy. In 1976 it was seen as patriotic to do what you could to save water..