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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Hosepipe ban... really!?

211 replies

NotTakenUsername · 29/06/2018 10:12

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?

OP posts:
eloisesparkle · 29/06/2018 18:44

Ban here in Dublin on Monday for the month of July.
I've no problem with that, in fact I think it should be from today. Why wait ?
I don't ever remember weather like this. You could actually invite people over for a barbeque and would be sure it won't rain.
Amazing.

SoftBallSophie · 29/06/2018 18:54

Because we live in a country with abundant and frequent rain, the infrastructure is not there to store enough water.

Dry spells like this are so rare that the water storage facilities aren't big enough. There is usually no need for them.

It's simple to understand, just don't use hosepipes until it started raining again.

mirime · 29/06/2018 19:42

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.

Wasn't Capel Celyn flooded in the 60's? Not quite Victorian times.

ScattyCharly · 29/06/2018 19:59

It's like everything. Cut down to the minimum bare bones. We should have more reservoirs, we should have more workers and more infrastructure. But no, we cut costs and services in the name of efficiency. It applies to everything, private and state and any government that's in power.

Want to see GP? Wait a few weeks.
Want car repaired, under warranty by main dealer you bought it from? Wait.
Want a day out at an overpriced attraction at the weekend? Queue.
Want to drive to work? Sit in traffic.
Want to park at work? Pay loads.
Want child in a smaller class than 30? Fuck off.
Want the person who burgled your house to go to prison? Dream on, they'll never even be caught even if they leave fingerprints..
Want your litter collected weekly? No can do.

We could sort this out. But idiots behind desks who don't use these services dream up ways to cut costs.

ForalltheSaints · 29/06/2018 20:27

We decided on 4 May 1979 to be a country that sells off the family silver. A decision we have not decided to change and I cannot see being any different in future.

Stinkbomb · 29/06/2018 21:34

It's because the water companies have sold off a lot of the reservoirs that store the water from Autumn/Winter/Spring so we run out/low when we have a few weeks without rain.

GratedCarrotStick · 29/06/2018 21:51

It's not the amount of water or lack of it but more the fact that the water can't be treated quick enough to keep up with the demand.

ScattyCharly · 29/06/2018 22:20

Saints, it is not just Thatcher. Private companies operate in the exact same way. Streamlining, optimising, cost cutting etc etc. Same everywhere. The car dealership near me is fully booked every single day. They do it so that all of their staff are working at 100% capacity with no downtime. If you want your car fixed, there is a big wait. Nothing to do with politics, it’s how everything has become. Never about the service, always about everything being stretched to the max. It’s a terrible way for society to be.

TheodoreRobinson · 29/06/2018 22:52

“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. “

I love big government and state-run infrastructure as much as the next lefty but this isn’t actually true.

The way the water industry is regulated / rewarded, water companies actually fucking love building big infrastructure projects as that’s what gets them the biggest rewards. Ofwat keeps a lid on it though. Part of the problem is that water efficiency measures (including leakage) count as operational expenditure not capital expenditure, which for regulatory reasons are not as well rewarded. So although the companies could do some things better, most of them would like to invest more in their infrastructure. We’d just have to be willing to pay above inflation price increases for it. What would you choose? Hosepipe ban or bigger bills?

Also Northern Ireland water (the only place with an actual not hypothetical hosepipe ban) is a completely different system and currently run by the government, not a private company.

MycatsaPirate · 29/06/2018 23:00

We are in the south of England and had very low water pressure yesterday.

We haven't had rain for weeks, the ground is rock hard. I water our plants and have topped up the ponds with the hose but really would never bother watering the lawn. It's only grass. I will make sure the ponds are kept at a decent level though, they are full of wildlife.

Also I think everyone is showering at least twice a day. It's so hot, it's impossible to keep sweat free!

If a hosepipe ban comes in here then we will use the rain butts and pond water we have syphoned off when we clean the filters to ensure the plants are kept watered but would have to make sure the ponds don't dry out either way.

Pebblespony · 29/06/2018 23:03

Never remember one here in the Rep of Ireland before. Dublin has had a problem with water supply for a while though. Theyre going to try to take some from the shannon but there is some fairly serious local opposition to the plan further west. Water is a bit of a touchy subject here though Grin.

seasidegAl2018 · 29/06/2018 23:40

dadshere thanks for the info. It as per below do work for a water company. I do have a lot of colleagues in our leakage department.

I have never known a leak not repaired because of money! We actively chase leaks of minuscule amounts!

gillybeanz · 29/06/2018 23:48

We have plenty of water, we are bloody surrounded by the stuff, being an Island an all.
We don't have the infrastructure because we don't need to deal with extremes in weather too often.
It comes at the bottom of a lot of other priorities no matter whose in charge of it.

stoneagemum · 29/06/2018 23:50

Fuck Me! 3 months ago the country ground to a stop due to snow, aka frozen water
Now we are worried about lack of water!

To me it's an infrastructure problem - but oh the uk doesn't get extremes of weather that often so it is not worth spending the money is the response to why we can't cope.

I'm not convinced that is correct thinking

JemmimaJ · 30/06/2018 00:52

Australia has hosepipe bans too.

Kismett · 30/06/2018 01:23

I’d definitely recommend water butts to anyone who doesn’t have one. I’d never had one until we moved and there was one that came with the house. It simply wouldn’t have occurred to me.

Now when I look at house listings I’ve noticed that just about every house has one. Maybe it’s regional? We are considering installing a second one because of this heatwave. Ours has run out and it would have been nice to have a second one.

CommanderDaisy · 30/06/2018 03:04

Australian water restrictions vary from state to state, hence the different responses.

We have sprinkler bans, bans on washing cars at times, watering garden bans , bans on filling swimming pools, recommendations for getting timers on showers- all sorts of stuff with big fines when the big reservoirs/dams drop below certain levels. We have desalination plants , as yet unused I think.

We also have bans on houses in some cities from having water tanks attached to houses to collect rainwater, and the hoops you need to jump through to get gray water systems in some urban areas are nuts. Governmental brilliance.

Defiitely an infrastruture problem, I 'd guess. Sewerage moving along and its water requirements, plus industrial demands on the available supply works out as probably more important than the wading pool.

MDFalco · 30/06/2018 06:31

CommanderDaisy: We also have bans on houses in some cities from having water tanks attached to houses to collect rainwater

Does that still happen? I thought that regulations had changed a few years ago and that all the capital cities actively encouraged the use of tanks for newly built houses..

lifeisabeachsometimes · 30/06/2018 06:59

I support the hosepipe ban.

The long range forecast looks the same: no rain. If it continues like this we will have a problem unless preventative messages are put in place.

Water planning takes droughts into account in Australia, they happen frequently, they however do not happen frequently in the UK. It is a very rare to have such a hot summer (not that I am complaining)

The lack of Co2 is probably a bigger problem though op

lljkk · 30/06/2018 07:23

Precisely b/c Norn has so much rain (usually) that there is no resilience in the system for a drought period? There is as much mining of the Norn aquifers as anywhere else in UK from what I can make out.

Igneococcus · 30/06/2018 07:30

West coast Scotland and everything is bone dry and there is no rain forecast for as far as the forecast goes at the moment.
Coming up from Glasgow on the West Highland line a few days ago some birches along the track already look autumnal. Never seen it like this in the 12 years I live here.

DGRossetti · 30/06/2018 07:36

We also have bans on houses in some cities from having water tanks attached to houses to collect rainwater

Isn't there a presumption that rain "belongs" to the water companies, and if you don't let it flow into the system (via drains) you're "stealing" it from them ?

Alternatively, if you aren't discharging water into the drains, you don't have to pay as much for your water (it's tucked away on your bill, the charge for drainage).

BICBW ....

Bibesia · 30/06/2018 07:37

Shrug. I grew up in the SE and I am ancient. Hot summers and no bans throughout my childhood. What else has changed?

You can't be that old. There were certainly hosepipe bans in 1976. In some areas people were reduced to getting water from standpipes in the street.

fuzzyduck1 · 30/06/2018 08:01

Well everyone is happy to pay less and less tax.
If you pay less in they have got less to spend so no investment in inferstructure. So hosepipe bans.

You could fill your paddling pool up with Evian