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?

you can use grey water

We use bath / shower water to water mature plants (taps for seedlings) and grass.
and because of this one change we have managed to bring our bill down to Iver half of what it was. Saving us a fortune and so we haven't really noticed the increase in electricity bill.

Obviously don't use Bath bombs or anything but a bit of soap and shampoo diluted with loads of bath water is fine.

Putting soap onto plants is not fine.

I mean in a crisis if water was cut off entirely, some "graywater" as a very temporary measure would keep most plants alive. But if used long term it is toxic to the plants, the soil and also anything edible you are attempting to grow.

vric.ucdavis.edu/pdf/fertilization_householdwastewater.pdf

RHS say it’s fine for up to 6 week blocks. Id imagine if it rains in that time you’d be ok to carry on
But not on salads and edibles.

www.rhs.org.uk/science/gardening-in-a-changing-world/water-use-in-gardens/using-grey-water

We will have them soon I suggest. The water boards are already struggling and can only just meet supply.

Everyone thinks fixing leaks is easy. But it's not. Some places you'd have to close off parts of London, and that simply can't be done. Plus the Infrastructure was built for a much smaller London and now can't cope. No easy fixes.

Our storage isn’t sufficient for a rainy season and a dry season.
All the run off from concrete, tarmac, built on areas, artificial grass etc rushes into the drains, they can’t cope, the roads flood, water treatment can’t cope, it all gets dumped into the rivers and out to sea
we manage water terribly in this country as we haven’t had to

It's ridiculous the amount of unfixed leaks - that they KNOW about but just can't be bothered fixing.

We bought this house in about 2010... couple of weeks after we bought it - the water board showed up, put the fear of God into us that there was a water leak and they were working out if it was our side of the pipework or theirs, and if it was ours then we had to get it fixed ASAP. They checked it out - it was on their side so they left.

They have periodically shown up most years to check if the leak is still "their" leak or "our" leak... finally fixed it last year, in 2021.

There’s a lot of misunderstanding on this thread.

Hosepipe bans have been renamed “temporary use bans” and the public have consistently indicated during focus groups over the last couple of decades that they are considered a “gross failure” by water companies. So for many companies they are considered an absolute last resort - or have been until this year when focus groups showed a change in attitudes. That the public would rather have more frequent TUBs and reduce the risk of having further restitutions - like NEUBs ( non essential use bans) and standpipes/rota cuts.

Regarding “until they sort out leakage what’s the point” type of views- water companies have to make a business case every 4 years yo work out how much money they need to do all maintenance and investment in things like leakage reduction. It gets reviewed by OFWAT - an independant regulator- who decide how much the water company is allowed to charge customers and they consistently reduce the proposal such that there isn’t the money to do the work. Leakage has massively improved over the last years as many have said, but there is an “economic level of leakage” beyond which it costs so much to fix that it’s not worth it. The low hanging fruit leaks are typically fixed and what’s left is the incredibly expensive/disruptive stuff. Leakage is almost always caused by customers putting things they shouldn’t down the drains, which causes blockages and breaks pumps for example.

Water companies are businesses and there’s no denying they make profits and they pay decent money to their CEOs- but ask yourself if you would do their job? If that’s the going rate to get someone good then would it be better to get someone cheaper who presumably can’t command higher money elsewhere as they’re not as a good?

If done repeatedly though eventually the soil will be poisoned.

The RHS link says it is ok as an emergency measure but long-term, extensive use should not be attempted.

"Sorting out leakage " isn't that simple. By their very nature they are unpredictable. One of the major causes is natural ground movement and another is 3rd party damage.

Repairs may involve council permissions to open up the highway (and in traffic sensitive areas require overnight repair); providing essential users like hospitals a guaranteed alternative supply; turning off electricity if there's also cables in close proximity; giving home dialysis patients a guaranteed supply; organisation of filling tankers and bowsers; rerouting the supply from another source; getting a traffic light company to set up lights. This is in addition to staff working hours complicating matters.
Leaks and bursts are prioritised according to Ofwat guidelines.
To give them their due water companies do a lot to minimise leaks by sending out inspectors overnight when background noise is less to listen (still the best way) for leaks that haven't yet surfaced. They also monitor usage using telemetry from the control room.

I don’t think anyone is using it solely long term. Just between rain and when the water butts are empty.
they say upto 6 weeks is ok. Hopefully there’s rain within that 6 weeks.

Whilst an established lawn doesn't need watering and will come back from brown, unfortunately newly laid turf really does need regular watering until it's rooted.

I'm in the SE too. We've scarcely had any rain for nearly 2 months where I live and reservoir levels are really low.

The only places I've heard of with no water are where there have been burst mains. I really felt for the people on Sheppey who had no mains water for 3 days.

We have a water scarcity alert. Today's been the first hot day, weather's been shit for weeks, it pissed it down yesterday and friday.

I watered mine and 4 neighbours full gardens earlier with pool water.

We bought a couple of slimline water butts from Aldi back in spring - similar to this:

www.therange.co.uk/garden/hoses-irrigation-and-watering/water-butts-and-compost-bins/100l-slimline-water-butt-and-stand?position=6#451454

One is attached to the roof down pipe & the other to the garage down pipe. I put water from the condenser dryer in them too - so far, not needed to use water from the tap/hose to water our garden yet.
Thinking of getting a couple more - one for the front of the house & the other for the other end of garage.

I had to use watering cans earlier to revive some flagging plants. Afraid I'll be using the hosepipe in a bit on the rest of the garden. Happy to forgo a bath in exchange as I've been able to keep nice and cool all day today .

I don’t think anyone is using it solely long term. Just between rain and when the water butts are empty.
they say upto 6 weeks is ok. Hopefully there’s rain within that 6 weeks.

Up to six weeks in an emergency if there is no other option, and that should keep most plants alive but not all, and will contaminate anything edible being grown so that it's not safe for consumption.

Not to do it in 6 week blocks repeatedly, as that will permanently toxify soil.

Several posts on this thread suggested that people should be doing this as a standard or regular method of garden watering. I think it's important to point out why that would be a terrible idea. We have water processing plants to remove toxins from wastewater for good reasons.