AIBU to be angry about hosepipe bans and whether people will comply?

[liquidfinch]

AIBU to be so angry about the hosepipe bans and the situation we find ourselves in?!

If we keep having these heatwaves AND hosepipe bans the future is going to become utterly unbearable.

I read somewhere that it's not even about us running out of water this year! The water companies are just worried about having to supply what we need because it will impact their environmental targets (they want to reduce water use per capita).

If they don't hit these targets it could reduce their bonuses and/or they might be fined.

These bans will have enormous adverse impacts on nature and ecosystems.

If we can't water our gardens, plants and parks wildlife will suffer. Pollinators especially. I think it's appalling.

Are you ready for the hosepipe ban?

Have you taken any measures (buying water butts, filling up pools) to mitigate the impact this will have on your normal routine/enjoyment of your home/garden/life?

Most importantly: are you going to comply?

• Cambridge Water:

Active as of July 9, and enforceable from 1am on Friday, July 17.

• Southern Water:

Enforced starting from 1am on July 11.

• South East Water:

Enforced starting from July 18.

You don’t need a hosepipe. I use a watering can, ok takes a while but it’s doable

I use a water butt and watering can. Obviously the butt is already dry but I’ve moved across to the tap.

Most people who care do use a can, surely? Hosepipes have always been wasteful. It’s the swimming pools and paddling pools and playing that will be hit.

No absolutely not. If I need to use it I will

It really annoys me because of how badly our water works are maintained the rest of the year - we constantly have burst mains (old and need replacing sooner, can’t cope with the infrastructure of new houses etc!) with many incidents of flooding areas of our town. We pay a fortune and to ask us not to use it in a heatwave really takes the biscuit.

I have a waterbutt in my garden and I can water plants with watering cans, luckily filled the kids pool way before the heatwave hit.

We don’t Have one coming in but I wouldn’t listen if we did as I have crops to water and maybe the pool will just get topped up as I’m watering my cucumbers or something.

We have been asked to use less water which is fine I won’t pressure wash the bins and things like that. But my plants and pool will stay wet.

I absolutely won’t comply.

If we keep having these heatwaves AND hosepipe bans the future is going to become utterly unbearable.

Well yes, this is the problem with global warming.

If you think hosepipe bans are bad wait until we start getting Mediterranean-style water rationing in the next decade. Without new reservoirs and without more rain that's where we're heading.

I have a water butt and use grey water on my small garden. It's still dry as a bone. I'm just tryjng to stop things dying.

I really can't see what the issue is.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO WATER A LAWN.

If you are disabled, you may still use a hosepipe.

If you have pots, you can use a watering can.

And if you need to wash the car you can use a bucket.

Just because water companies are incompetent does not mean you can waste a precious resource.

I'm in one of these areas and I've had a leak at the front of my house for 4 weeks with water trickling down the street. I've put in 3 requests and told this has been escalated. They are not rushing to fix it. So no I won't be complying.

I will in the main, but very similar to @MadeofCheeese it took 3 weeks to get a leak in front of our house fixed with water pumping out of it and apparently it's not properly fixed as the water company don't want to spend the money to fix the whole street which is what is needed. So it's pretty annoying that they expect us to do the work!

Yes we had a leak losing loads per day they kept writing to us we must fix OUR leak. We didn’t have a leak they did. Our side of the meter but it was before our property line. Still once they located it took a couple of weeks to fix.

Our lawn is fried least we won’t have to cut it now.

I siphon off bathwater into a water butt to water the garden.

I do wish our houses were set up to be able to divert grey water into a tank that could be used for this.

You absolutely do need to water a lawn.

Not only because THINGS LIVE INSIDE THE SOIL TOO (since apparently we're screaming now?).

Watering the lawn reduces flooding when it does start raining - if the soil is dry it wont absorb water (it will take much longer). By not watering the lawn you're increasing the flood risk in the area.

Dry vegetation increases fire spread if and when fires break out.

Watering cans, and I've got a water butt. What annoys me is not hosepipe bans as such but the fact that we're one of the few countries in the world with a privatised water supply. And because of that years of under-investment so it's leaky while shareholders have made themselves rich on the profits.

I'm not going to use a hosepipe when there's a ban. I don't think that helps anyone

As a farmer who came within an hour of running out of water for our livestock yesterday we absolutely will comply and have asked our village to do the same!

I just use a bucket and jug, don’t see the problem.

But the plants and beds (flower/veg) need water. With dead flowers we’ll have reduced biodiversity and pollinators.
My lawn is clover and covered in flowers for the bees.

That said, it’s certainly time to invest in some more drought resistant plants.

Also this!!

Though golf courses are always exempt. I take offence to that tbh.

edit

I think they should have to have under ground tanks like petrol stations where they harvest rain water as their water for droughts.

I have 2 water butts. Just topped the pond up,they are now both empty. Hosepipe ban imminent, no heavy rain forecast.
Yet 12,000 new homes planned near me over next few years. The population keeps increasing.
I agree, there will be water rationing in the near future

Hosepipe bans would be more likely to be observed if our rivers were clean and the water companies not paying large dividends or high executive pay.

When there was the drought in 1976 water was in public ownership.

Do it at night

Bloody hell I hope we don't have one again

The water play with my child is what makes the weather enjoyable when it's as hot as now

We had a hosepipe ban almost the whole of last summer as well

If you’re disabled you can use a hosepipe?

do you need a blue badge or will a diagnosis of something count?