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?

In long dry periods, of course there will be water issues and people should be careful. Where I live, we have a private supply (simply because we are remote) and we are acutely aware of what could happen, so have all taken suitable measures for a few weeks now, including no use of hosepipes for gardens.
Here’s how Cape Town coped with a really serious water crisis very recently:
www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2018/jun/05/day-zero-how-cape-town-stopped-taps-running-dry-video

There will be NO hosepipe ban in my house unless they also cut my expensive monthly water charges. United Utilities,,check their annual profits..

A company worth £5 Billion with annual revenues of £1.7 Billion and can afford to pump out an annual dividend return of over 5% to its share holders?

Fuck right off,, hose on,car washed etc etc

www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/u/united-utilities-group-plc-ordinary-5p

In some parts of the U.K., there has been no significant rainfall for 2 months. Of course water resources will get used up! Reservoirs store water, but it they don’t get topped up by rainfall, then the volumes of water will become depleted, particularly in a summer like this where demand on the public water supply is high.

The other thing of course is that hot weather increases the rate of evaporation from reservoirs. Millions of litres must be lost to the atmosphere every day in this weather.

Also the rise of combi boilers that are often wasteful of water, puts additional strain on networks.

Thanks Cornish, we’re Somerset and my mind has just gone blank re our water company I’m thinking Bristol Water, but that might not even exist 🤯

Somerset is Wessex water - I’ve just paid my 943.89 water bill for the period of November-June so its etched on my brain.

It is also the most expensive water company in the country

Wessex is not the most expensive, that’s nearly always south west water because of the miles and miles of coastline.

In Somerset your sewerage is probably Wessex Water but your water supply might be Bristol Water depending on where you live.

Unlikely to be a hosepipe ban in Wessex because the whole water supply is part of a grid so it’s easy to move water to where it’s needed. Also lots of water supply is aquifers so less vulnerable to drought than reservoirs or river abstraction. Obviously it’s not impossible though! The different water companies will fare differently based on the geography of the area they cover and also what non-supply large investments they’ve had to make recently.

Big investments in eg. New reservoirs doesn’t necessarily guarantee anything except enormous bills - one of the big reservoirs (maybe Rutland water?) was built to keep up with demand for water due to nearby industry. But by the time it was built the industry had collapsed and so customers are stuck paying for a resource they don’t really need. Also as has been seen by this thread, reservoirs are really controversial and I don’t think here’s much appetite for new ones of any size.

Water is not paid through tax, whoever said that. In my opinion it would be better if it was because tax is linked to ability to pay. Putting everyone on a meter doesn’t necessarily help people use less water because people can feel like they get to do whatever they like with their water as they’ve paid for it - social conscience helps people use less water if they’re not paying per unit.

Leakage is genuinely much more complicated to detect than you’d imagine!

MDFaclo - yep, still no water tanks allowed in parts of Sydney. Batshit stuff. My parents have been trying for years - but their council says no. Just crazy.

CommanderDaisy: I now live in the Blue Mountains, but have spent most of my life in Sydney. I am really curious about what local council is so pigheaded. Do your parents live in somewhere like Haberfield with all the somewhat pretentious "heritage" restrictions, or is it the only habitat of an endangered species?

This site www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/understanding-planning/assessment-systems/exempt-development/rainwater-tanks sort of indicates that tanks are permissible in most circumstances, if they are below 10,000l.

However, I do appreciate how local councils love throwing their weight around if they get the chance.

I live in the Lake District and we’re low in water

We've had unseasonal dry weather here (I'm in the area near the winter hill fires). If they need the water to put out fires then so be it, that's more important than a paddling pool. We aren't forecast rain for another two weeks here and it is desperately needed

The other issue is that the hot dry weather also unfortunately increases the risk of forest fires with more than one occurring so far this summer. Dealing with those will require using a significant amount of water.

Well if the water board would fix the leaky pipe that's been outside our house for at least 7 years now - they might go some way toward maintaining supply. Instead of which they send blokes along every year who menacingly inform me they're going to test where the leak is and if it's mine I WILL HAVE TO HAVE IT REPAIRED IMMEDIATELY... realise it's their leak as it's the other side of the boundary... and skulk off to leave it yet again. Been going on ever since we bought the house- you bet they wouldn't let it go on like that if it was a leak on our side of the boundary though!

altheaordonna, it doesn't rain 'all the time' in parts of the UK, certainly not in mine, and in areas of very high population density (and therefore demand) supplies can run low after a long dry period. It's a preventive measure, , since people can can be very selfish or thoughtless in leaving sprinklers on for hours, just to water lawns, which recover soon enough anyway once it rains.
We've had hosepipe bans in my area (outer SW London) occasionally, but never for very long.

As for what happens in Australia, where in the country are you? We have visited during a very dry period and friends in Melbourne said they were banned from watering gardens at all for a while, not just with hosepipes. Also I remember signs in the Gold Coast area, where even the palm trees were looking a bit sick, saying 'every drop is precious'.

Gettinglikemmother, I am from the UK, and lived there for over 30 years, I know how much it rains! I now live in Perth. The only restrictions are that we are only allowed to put the sprinklers on alternate days and not at all in winter, when it isn’t needed anyway. It’s not much of a hard ship really. I’ve been here five years and there haven’t been any other restrictions. So no, water isn’t totally unrestricted, but we can still fill the pool and water the garden.

use your water butt OP the water in those ran out weeks ok

I'm in the NW, and there's a water 'shortage' in our area, and our water pressure is really low. I had to have a cold shower earlier because there wasn't enough water pressure to fire the boiler for hot water. There's no hosepipe ban, but I doubt anyone is using their hosepipes as it would only be a trickle anyway!

So whoever wanted the excess water from the north piped to the south... there isn't enough to share I'm afraid.

give people water meters they'll soon stop watering their gardens i'm still paying off water that i filled a pool up 2years ago

give people water meters they'll soon stop watering their gardens

Why not smart meters ? After all, if they save energy, as claimed, you'd think they'd save water.

BingTheButterflySlayer - you can complain to the consumer council for water.

I am early forties and i certainly remember hosepipe bans in sussex. I also remember my dad watering his runner beans with the dirty bath water because he couldnt use a hosepipe or fresh water

It is because people are using much more water and they don't have the infrastructure to deal with it. Its not about the water. They can't treat it and pump it to houses quickly enough. The alternative is that they spend a fortune building new treatment plants to deal with freak heatwaves once every thirty years. Where I grew up water consumption works go through the roof in summer every year, bans on sprinklers etc were common every few years. We managed just fine and it was properly hot there. Not merely high twenties. There is no reason why you can't take your children to the park to cool down instead of your garden is too small to provide enough shade and grass to cool you down.

Smart meters do not 'save' energy (electricity) at all.
All they do is highlight how much you are using so you can decide what to switch off.
Water meters are a good idea in that in a similar way you can get a proper feel for how much you are using. Then if you want to spend £20 a week to water your lawn, you can. Unmetered is a form of abuse, or at least is open to it as you feel that you can just put a hose on and leave it.

DG

Who claims that smart metres save you energy and htf would that work
No, they just register your readings so the energy providers can spy on what you use
Funny thing is if you have the first version you can't take them to a new provider usually, and of course you still have to give additional readings.
The energy companies just take remote readings for your billing, sometimes.