Hosepipe ban... really!?

[NotTakenUsername]

So, we lose days of learning in the winter (most winters now - I understand it didn’t use to be so often.)

Now, we can’t use our water supply when we most need it!

We’ve had floods this year. Floods!!

AIBU to be pissed off that just as the kids finish school with dreams of lazy days spent with the paddling pool getting full use, our shitty infrastructure lets us down once again?

@AdoraBell It may depend where you call the South West, but I am down in Cornwall and South West Water haven't brought in a hosepipe ban yet and did say one was unlikely.

We had a really dry winter compared to other years, even without the heatwave we would struggle this year. Demand outstrips supply as mentioned. Also the person in Australia saying you have loads of water you have got to be joking. Water shortages in Australia are causing enormous environmental harm, they are taking extreme steps such as desalination plants and consideration pipelines thousands of kilometers long to move supply. There is a stupendous water supply problem.in Australia which would be vastly improved by more responsible water usage.

My parents live in the Lake District. Famously damp. Their house has a private water supply. It takes six weeks of sustained lack of rain for them to begin to run low. This happens EVERY THIRD YEAR at least. Most years there's low points.

It just flat out doesn't rain as much in this country as people whinge about. People just seem to count the blazing hot days of summer, not the steady ones.

Oh and floods can be exacerbated by dry conditions, if the ground is hard and compacted water runs off quickly with sudden downpours, just like if it were saturated with water. It had hardly rained for weeks in Brun before the floods.

Oh and floods can be exacerbated by dry conditions, if the ground is hard and compacted water runs off quickly with sudden downpours, just like if it were saturated with water.

famously "the wrong type of rain"

Yes people mentioning the thunderstorms. Didn't really happen up north so it has been ages since there's any proper rain.

There is not a water shortage, it is a myth perpetuated by the utility companies to hide their failings. The problem, is that the water companies do not invest in their infrastructure, the bosses and shareholders take massive amounts of money out of the company whilst allowing broken pipes to leak millions of gallons of treated, clean water into the ground. The mismanagement is shocking and should be criminal. We need to renationalise the essential industries.

First time I've ever heard of a hosepipe ban was in the fourth or fifth Harry Potter book .

Doubt there's a ban around here, but will check- I'll ban baths in the house before I stop watering the couple of plant pots I have though.

I'm in the NE where it's normally muddy for 9 months of the year. I can't remember the last time it rained enough to give the ground a proper soaking. Our usual lush grass verges are parched straw.

We never had hosepipe bans back in the 70s, dadsere

Never, ever. Oh no

I live on the moors and our water is a spring. So far we haven't had an issue with the quantity of water coming in but we are certainly not wasteful with it.

I have unfortunately seen water sprinklers out on a couple of beautifully manicured lawns.

CheshireCat don’t ban baths, couldn’t you use the bathwater for your plant pots afterwards?

famously "the wrong type of rain"

I should clarify these are mostly tomato plants and I don't fancy eating soapy tomatoes.

Even if it's all in my head

Not in a ban area anyway, Yorkshire Water are saying a ban is incredibly unlikely.

Technically I'm exempt anyway as I don't have an actual hose, but would reduce water usage out of common sense.

Unlike the previous post who thinks her cars are too precious for a bit of dust .

I don't fancy eating soapy tomatoes.

I’m not a gardener but i did wonder if soapy water would suit this job!

All the rivers and ponds where I live have very low water levels at the moment. The dew pond that the dog loved to swim in has been reduced to a muddy puddle (particularly disappointing, as most summers ducks came and lived there for a few weeks, I doubt they'll bother now).

At low tide, the river near me is so low it doesn't reach the banks at all, I've not seen that happen in all the years I've lived here (27). At high tide, even on the the biggest tide of the month, it was nowhere near the top (although this time of the year is when the tides are at their smallest, so due in part to that).

This was predicted well before the current heat wave:
www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/05/south-east-england-at-risk-of-water-shortages-this-summer-officials-warn

@Lucisky
We have not got a single downpipe in a location where you would have room for a butt. How have other people fitted them? I would be interested to know because I would like one.

Ours is by the garage rather than the house. Someone up the road has theirs collecting water running off their shed.

I hear you OP, I'm also in Northern Ireland and there's at least 3 gardens near us which have had sprinklers running for days in the last week.
One up the street from us has his still going and half of the water is running down the road

Bucket of water and sponges or water pistols for a water fight. Will use less water than a pool and doesn't require a hosepipe.

@mirime - thanks, you've just given me an idea - we have a log store where we could run a bit of guttering along. Another job for oh!

We didn't have any rain or thunder storms a month ago. considering the NW and Manchester in particular are supposed to be the wettest, we seem to have gone the longest without any rainfall.

There were some, but very localised. We got a good drenching during storms one evening, my wheelbarrow was half full so must have been several inches. But a pal a couple of miles away had nothing.

But that, even in the NW, has been it for ages.

Re the reservoirs... lots of Victorian/Edwardian acts of Parliament affected Lancashire, Lake District, Derbyshire etc too... basically the hilly wet bits not just picking on wales and Scotland. Thirlmere supplies Manchester, for instance.

I wonder if all this storing of water could lead to stagnation and (more ) lots of nasty buzzy things ?

DG no problems so far with stagnation or bugs.
I have only had water butts for 3 years, one was already here when we moved in and the house was unoccupied for a year before (probate) the butt was full and it was clear water.
Only used for plants or paddling pool, would probably never use in kettle.

I’m in Ireland and cannot get over this either. It’s just so stupid.

They tried to introduce water rates, (which is a good idea) but couldn’t tell anyone how much they would be and frightened the shit out of the whole country.
It was be like saying ‘we are now charging for oxygen but we can’t tell you how much it will be’
If they just had introduced a FLAT RATE then everyone would have paid it and we would have had the money to fix the fucking pipes!!

I just got a back from Portugal, it didn’t rain a drop for 6 months straight last year, the whole country is full of swimming pools and visitors and they have no water problems.

It’s absolutely mad how much it rains here, for 11 months of the year, we are in the middle of the sea, and now we are short of water.

Someone has to do something.

dadshere trust me we do struggle for water! Some of my sites can do far more flow but it just isn't in the ground

And in my area, we have had tens of millions invested to keep everyone on supplies