First England Hosepipe Ban! AIBU to think that some people are really selfish?

[blackbirdbluebottle]

The first England hosepipe ban this year comes into force for United Utilities users from this Sunday. Despite this ban nearly all the comments on one post are saying if their kids want a swimming pool they will use the hosepipe to fill up the pool! AIBU to think that this is really selfish of people to fill up a swimming pool for their kids when the water will be wasted soon after the kids have used it?

When they fix their leaks and stop supplying Quadrilla with 40 million litres per frack I’ll start believing they have the best interests of their customers at heart.

I don’t wash my car often, my window cleaner uses a bucket and I don’t have a paddling/swimming pool. They can get to fuck if they think I’ll not water my garden (with buckets, not a hosepipe) in a prolonged heatwave.

Mummyoflittledragon
Water butts only work if there’s rain to fill them up 😏

Water leaks are an issue and should be addressed but they won't be in the next two weeks, so if your attitude is that it's fine for you to do what you like with your hosepipe because the water companies should be doing more, you're STILL contributing to water shortages which will have a horrendous impact on farming and the food supply chain.

I'm pretty lucky because I live in Scotland so we don't pay for water and I don't recall there ever being a hosepipe ban. So I know it's easy for me to criticise when I don't face limitations. But if you live in an area where water is scarce you have to be community minded and not put yourself first because the consequences are too serious to ignore.

ShadowHuntress do you ask that because I don’t agree with the OP and think UU are a shower of shit?

I am not a gardener, I don’t have any plants to water, my grass is dead and I don’t care, I dont wash my car often, and when I do I go to the local car wash as the water is recycled, I have quick showers and don’t leave the tap running when I brush my teeth and I don’t own a dishwasher. Have I filled my DD’s very small paddling pool up - yes a couple of weeks ago and it is the same water in it now, when it eventually goes yuck it won’t be refilled. Although. The heavy rain from yesterday as topped it up.

The commenter meant swimming pool, aka a big one with a lot of water...

We have used our hose to fill our small paddling pool, but all that water has then been used to water veg plants with the watering can.
NW has been very wet, and this area has had many long standing big leaks.
One near McDonalds which I have seen far too frequently has literally been pouring out for over SIX weeks. The ground must have become unstable around it by now surely.
I think this coupled with the ridiculous charges UU are able to inflict is responsible for the poor attitudes. People can not comprehend 'no water' unless they've lived it. Lots of them see ignoring a hosepipe ban as socking it to the man

Just to be clear though, it isn't simply about water being scarce in the north west. Hell, it's been pissing down here in the last few days! And there was a wet spring. UU are causing this with their shit infrastructure. Now I quite agree that they're clearly not going to be addressed in the next 2 weeks, so we're going to have to go along with the restrictions, no way round that. I didn't actually use a hosepipe anyway so I certainly won't be doing while there's the ban, and we've been trying to be more careful. But let's be clear what the issues are here. The north west as a region isn't massively less rainy than Scotland!

We haven't even got a hosepipe ban here but I'm not filling up our pool. Waste of water. DS not allowed deep baths etc. I also have large containers, 5 litre old Lenor type bottles, to fill with water that would normally go down the sink until the hot water runs. I then use this to water the plants etc.

Some of this because I'm on a water meter but also because it will only get worse and its good to do your bit. People are selfish, entitled fuckers!

I still find it odd that almost all water companies are privatised - we are lucky enough to be supplied by Welsh Water #notforprofit!!

"People in the U.K. don't seem to understand that they are part of the natural world, the water cycle etc. Its sad to see selfishness like this."

Agree wholeheartedly with this. And see also, climate change - the UK is not seeing the rapidly shifting weather patterns that a lot of the world is, and as a result a high number of people don't think about the effects climate change will eventually have. Or worse, don't care because they don't think it will affect them (it will).

But hey - as long as you pay for your water, fill your pool, wash your car, leave the taps running, right?!

Even if the shit infrastructure is a contributory factor (do remember it's an accusation levelled against every single water company the sole damned time), it's not going to be fixed in a fortnight and the question becomes 'what sort of water supply do you want by September?' if the drought goes on? And yes, they will have taken meteorologist advice before deciding in a ban.

That area is already under 'use water prudently' advice. Are people really going to ignore this? You might manage to fill your paddling pool just before fines come in, but you can't exactly stockpile water. So I think the 'last rush before restrictions" might not be so large. Especially as those who are already complying with current advice are likely to continue to do so, and the profligate types are being profligate anyhow.

I don’t think in places with no warnings people need to be not watering their plants or avoiding flushing the loo.

We’ve been told here that there would have to be a huge period of drought, significantly longer than that seen so far, for there to be any water shortage, and reservoirs in the region are at above average capacity, so I don’t think there’s any need to worry about specific posters habits if we don’t know that they are living in an area with limited water resources.

As Iamtrying said, it is not like old water shortages, when the reservoirs were low due to lack of rain. Most shortages / times of high use are down to the long known, measurable and supposedly fine-able offense that EVERY water company commits every day of the year.

Since being privatised hardly any of the known, long term leaks have been addressed, they fix the ones we complain about, in the smaller pipes that fail to feed our houses, drown our roads, but the large bore pipes still leak about 25% of ALL water that passes through.

Think about that... what damage does that water cause to roads, undermining them and contributing to pot holes, that we all then have to pay for?

What damage to land owned by private individuals?

And why aren't they forced, by their own covenants, to make those repairs? The profits leave the UK but we still have to pay for the service and repairs due to lack of repair!

I know that ignoring the ban isn't a remedy, but as the bans are pointless, due to poor maintenance and profit chasing I too get very annoyed and am tempted to turn my hosepipe on and leave it running into the gutter.

We also need to be looking beyond short term solutions.

Yes, the ban is a necessity for now. That's a given. Soon enough, rainfall will increase to normal levels, and what then? Water companies simply allowed to get away with poor practice and wasting millions of litres because most of the time it's pissing it down sufficiently that they can get away with it? Fuck that.

They showed a reservoir on the bbc and the water is a lot lower. In some areas it’s not that the water I low but that the pipes are not big enough to get thensupply through. Our village had no water for a day last week and where my daughter lives a pump at the pumping station failed so they had no water. The hosepipe ban in the north comes in on the 5th August

The problem is the people who do this generally expect the rest of the population to behave in a way which supports their choices. So they aren't arsed about wasting water, because they know others won't. That is demonstrated by the recent situation in South Africa where people were asked not to even wash their hair. Many people didn't adhere to the requests.
We will know about it when there's nothing to drink but the Facebook huns will still post pics and say 'fuck the system I'll do what I like'. Those people should get the water companies shutting off their supply as a matter of compulsory

wellbeehivedwoman
What do you mean you don't pay for water in Scotland?
Is it included in council tax or something? What about sewerage charges etc?
Or is it because you are off grid?
(Sorry, just being nosy)

And I'm in Yorkshire. My plants are all dead, the lawn is yellow, my car is filthy, my water butts are empty. I haven't had a lovely hot bath in ages. My bathroom stinks of piss as we only flush when someone has had a shit. The only thing we've watered with a can is the veg.
I'm in my 40's but well remember standing in line with my mum waiting to fill a bucket up!

This is my lawn. We haven't had rain for 6 weeks. AIBU to think it will never be green again?

@MaxPepsi the water charge in Scotland is paid in with council tax and is a set fee. Water is rarely metered for private homes.

Yanbu.
If we get one on the south I suspect I'll have to report a couple of neighbours.

Does anyone know how to start a government petition using curious' arguments - I am on train on phone at mo so would struggle to sort one

What happens with garden centres and car washes?

During the drought in 1976, car washes were closed.

United Utilities are already physically removing water from North Wales to subsidise their network in North West England so I'm rather annoyed that the hosepipe ban has taken this long to implement when they were struggling 2 weeks ago.

Water is such a precious commodity, arguably the most precious and I think in generations to come people will be disgusted at the thought of so much wasted water by both companies refusing to upgrade infrastructure to keep profit margins high and consumers who think nothing of pouring perfectly drinkable clean water down toilets and for washing things like cars, footpaths, windows etc

To those who are planning to use a watering can instead of a hose, what do you think the difference is? You’re still using the same water, when the whole point of a ban is to reduce usage.

Thanks catzy

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