Hosepipe ban

[Anotherdayanotherdisappointment]

Every summer hatwave growing up (80s/90s) we had hosepipe bans. Not heard about bans in recent years. Has our water inferstructure changed so hosepipe bans are no longer needed? Or is there another reason?

So to phrase as an AIBU...

AIBU to think hosepipe bans are no longer necessary?

My garden guy said to leave sprinkler going all night....

We had one a few years ago. One of my neighbours reported me in our local Facebook group for using a hose during it.

Said hose was connected to my own water butt which exists solely for the garden.

I've worked for 2 different water companies in different parts of England (although it's been many years since I did). One regularly has hosepipe bans, the other hasn't had one since 76.
The advice we were told to give about watering was to keep it to a minimum. Plant roots will seek out water, so constantly watering will only encourage shallow roots. If you must water, then do it at dusk so less water is lost to evaporation.

Unfortunately in my area we have an actual water shortage at the moment. Some places don't have running water at all (s. E. England)

Be careful using a hose from a water butt @FrankLampardsFrankLampardsBrokenHand don't use a spray attachment. In this weather the water in the butt could get warm enough to start growing legionella bacteria and if you water with a spray you could breathe it in and get legionnaires disease. It should be fine so long as you don't generate a fine spray though.

Every house should have rainwater storage and/or grey water capture as standard. I would love to be able to divert shower water into storage. (Does anyone with a shower tray have a low tech way of capturing the water from the shower?) I have a washing up bowl under the kitchen tap and pour the caught water on the garden whenever it's full. Amazing how much water we have saved that way.

We tried to research this recently, I thought you couldnt use washing up liquid water?

Also we have no way of siphoning off and storing grey waste from the bathroom, the pipe that leads into the drain is inside a utility room so is crammed up against a door that leads into the garden and the back door to the kitchen, we couldnt put a butt in there.

If you’ve a normal house with a drainpipe for your bathroom on the outside there’s no reason you can’t add a water butt diverter kit and a small Waterbutt. You need to use it quickly rather then store.

I can’t quite picture if you mean it’s inside or not, if you’ve money, there’s some beautiful small water butts and some really slim ones. But they are very expensive.

I'll use the hose around the side of the house to fill the watering cans if there's a ban , they're too heavy for me to hold up to the tap. But unlike all my neighbours I've not been texted so I'm watering my garden every other day - plants cost a lot of money and I'm not having them all die. Lawn is brown but will come back.

😵‍💫 That's a bit creepy! 😆

Also I'm in SE and saw water board guy interviewed saying there is plenty of water and no risk of a hose pipe ban the issue is that everyone is using at once and they can't get through the pipes quick enough, I think they reduced water pressure to help .

Yes the pipe is in a corner, its a few inches away from the kitchen back door on one side, then another few inches away from the utility room back door on the other.

If we put a butt anywhere near it we wouldnt be able to get out of the house!!

We haven't had a hosepipe ban since '76 so I'm not worried.

I’ve been watering the lawn every third night and it looks okay, not as brown as next doors but certainly not lush and green. I’ve also only really been giving it a light hosing, not hours and hours of water (I don’t see the need), but I like my grass and garden looking nice as we’ve spent a shit tonne of money doing it up and I don’t want to sit out looking at brown grass!
we are on a water meter.
Dh is against the grass watering because he can’t be arsed but spending 10 minutes once the sun has dropped in the peace of the garden watering is bloody lovely.

@Afterfire

You don't need to water it!

Sorry to repeat this image again but you honestly don't need to water your lawn!!!

We've got two water butts one connected to rain run off and one that we can fill up from the stream in the garden, we are allowed to take an amount each year, we do the water butt in winter when the stream is at its highest and use this in the summer months to water the plants. I also fill up the watering can with the water when waiting for it to go hot when washing dishes. I'm not you should because of containments but also if the condensor tumble dryer has been used I use that water for the plants. Currently using quite a bit as have a newish lawn.

Last winter/this spring was so rainy and wet (my ponies were literally swimming around their fields), that I can’t see water reserves running out anytime soon 😂.

We've had a text from Severn Trent asking us to save water and not use hose pipes this week.

It does appear we are developing wet seasons and dry seasons. If that is the case , we all need to get better at storing it for longer lengths of time and trying to capture and retain more run off.

Apparently, Severn Trent has texted people to tell them (us?) not to use hosepipes. I haven't received the text.

This is despite our region having been severely flooded in February.

I assume they don't bother as no-one pays attention anyway.

We live in one of the rainiest countries in the world. If there are problems with water supply the solution is for the Government to ensure there is sufficient storage, not limit supply.

So yes, in the UK bans on water usage are totally unnecessary as there are other, better solutions.

I remember the summer in 1976 when lots of areas were on standpipes. That year we had a very dry spring there had been no heavy rain since early April and the reservoirs were running dry. This year we have had a wet spring so we should be ok.