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.

My God this is a terrifying thread. It’s all completely hopeless. Your reaction to water companies being a shitshow is to decide to compete with them to be as shitty as possible? wtf?

I’ve just checked our reservoir levels on the website and out of 6, 3 are below average.

So I still don’t see us getting a ban. We haven’t had a ban even when a few said low.

It isn't a piss take, because it does reduce the amount of water people use.

You can continue to use as much water as you want, but you have to do it manually.

That's the whole point 😂

Drives me crazy that a few weeks ago we had a road being taken up about 4 streets away for a burst pipe, and floods at the start of the year but get some heat and hosepipe bans are put in place. They need to sort their crappy pipes and rubbish flood defences before coming after everyone’s water! It’s shit.

I also know fines are not issued and no prosecutions are made, so it means I can just ignore it.

Exactly.

Person A is a selfish jerk, so that gives me every excuse to be as selfish as I want...

As I said, there's a dog owner in our local park who doesn't pick up their dog's crap. That means I don't have to pick up my dog's crap. If the rest of the community suffer it's not my fault...

Up to 25% of all the water that goes into the public supply is lost through leaky pipes (england and wales)!

I get that there are issues to do with corruption with the water companies. And all the other fatcat companies. Totally.
But thats no excuse at all for "I will continue to use my hosepipe because I want to, no one is going to stop me"
Such a pathetically childish selfish attitude.
One bunch of wrongs doesnt make it ok for you to also do something wrong.
If a situation arises whereby we dont have enough water to drink, wash our bodies with (as is the case in various countries around the world pretty often already) good to know you'll still find reasons to water your grass.
(That was a rant at no one in particular btw)

Yes, you can, and probably won't face any consequences. If you want to be selfish jerk, go for it.

My thoughts exactly. It doesn't 'show' the water companies. It leads to running out of water. Water companies aren't being dramatic - they're safeguarding a resource critical for life. As a farmer mentioned earlier - they were almost out of water already and we've got days to go of this. If they run out of water for livestock, what then!?

All to water a garden? I grow some food which I won't let die - but I'll water it with a can, like I always do. People on allotments (who are literally feeding their families) don't have hosepipes - they use a watering can. Mitigating flood risks by watering a lawn (if that's honestly why you're doing it) comes secondary to people having water to drink and keep livestock alive. How can you possibly argue otherwise?

Edit to fix typo

I work in water supply (not one of the companies listed or with a ban right now) but I can say we are in fact running out of water in parts of our region. We can’t keep up with the demand and are upping flows from one storage point to another all over the place to try and balance it so everyone has a supply

Each to their own with a hose pipe ban, I wouldn’t be watering the lawn or running a sprinkler but I’d fill my kids paddling pool to keep her cool

Our alloments allow hose watering in June July and august especially for the drier weather.

Though I get this may differ city to city.

Sounds like you could be my supplier.

They have sent low pressure alerts to use their pumps to get water more than a dribble I assume in other areas they cover.

Our pressure has stayed fine however.

Data centres are outside my control. A dry garden for a few weeks isn’t . And regardless you sound like a first world problems moaner

get over yourself . You live in a country where food and drinking water is plentiful and you don’t have to decide between starving yourself or letting your kids do the same .seriously. You are embarrassing yourself .

Water supply genuinely has worried me since I was a quite young. It’s such a precious resource. I plant my garden with drought resistant plants, though even they go under at times of extreme drought. I don’t water plants at all. But the birds need my pond to wash in. Yesterday I was in a very green part of the UK and I saw a bird clearly in distress with the heat. It was heartbreaking. Whilst I can help, I will help. Although the newts can manage, I don’t want them to be driven to the edge. So I will risk whatever happens and refill.

All of our water bills tell us that we are low water users.
I used the hose the other day to give the shrubs a good soak.

@HoppityBun Yesterday I was in a very green part of the UK and I saw a bird clearly in distress with the heat.

what were the signs?

Thank you for your perspective. I am not embarrassed by my views but you can have another go if you want to waste time on trying to shame me with for not sharing your values or views.

We have 3 water buts.

We went away on holiday during the really hot bit of 2022. We returned to find pretty much all of our potted plants had died. They’d been well watered before we went away but that was no match for 40 degree temps and no rain for ages.

As we’re not fortune tellers it’s impossible to plan to be home during a heatwave, so we set about looking at ways to ensure it didn’t happen again. What we’ve got in place now won’t completely stop the plants getting water stressed, but in the few years it has been in place we’ve found they’ve survived hot spells ok and actually look healthier during a normal summer than they did before.

Our previous routine was to soak the pots with a hose either early morning or late evening whenever they needed it, basically avoiding the hottest part of the day. We had 3 x 100l water butts and used a watering can when there were hosepipe restrictions - and also when we had a water cut. Unfortunately even though we didn’t water in blazing sun, the water droplets hung around and caused leaf burn on some of the plants. Extra hot spells and weekends away left leaves crispy and the water sometimes sat on top of the soil rather than sinking in when we returned.

Now we have an additional 4 x 200l water butts daisy chained to the original ones at the bottom so they drain as one. We bought a solar water butt irrigation pump and a load of drippers and capillary tube and ran these to every pot in the garden. The pump has a built in timer and we set it for 5 mins a day. As the drippers are pushed into the soil they don’t need to be on any longer. They deliver water right to the roots so there’s no waste. We also bought an irrigation system that connects to the outside tap. This snakes through the veg beds and by some of the more delicate plants in the ground. It also has a timer and the two zones have either a dripper or leaky hose, depending on where they go.

So far it’s worked well. Not only do we have plants that don’t have to deal with a stressful cycle of dry/soaking, but we can also go away for a last minute long weekend and know they’ll be ok even if it doesn’t rain. No last minute watering and no panicking if we see a heatwave forecast whilst away!

The other bonus which we didn’t realise at the time, so it was just a lucky accident, is that timed dripper systems (mains water) are usually not restricted during a hose pipe ban! The water butts would be excluded from any ban anyway, but having capacity for over 1000l means we can get through a typical summer which has intermittent showers, with little need to top them up from the mains. We’ll add more butts in future as we go along. Eventually we’re hoping to have capacity for 3000l which is do-able from the calculated annual rainfall on our roof. And much, much cheaper than installing a 3000l underground rainwater tank!

@DoYouSellBuckets Water companies aren't being dramatic - they're safeguarding a resource critical for life.

If you think they are safeguarding then your bar is very low.

As I said, up to a quarter of all the water that goes into the public supply is wasted by the companies as a dirct result their failure to fix the pipes, which they have known about for a very long time.

Ever asked yourself why Germany, Belgium, Denmark, who all have comparable soil profiles, have much lower leakage levels? They simply don't want to invest into what is needed.

Well, your argument seems to be that some people (water company bosses) are in the wrong, and therefore you can ignore the needs of the rest of your community.

As I said, by all means be selfish. But as you started the thread, don't expect other people to refrain from pointing out that you are being selfish.

Excellent contribution!! Thank you for sharing these solutions!

Sounds good! I have 400 litres joined and 80 litres separately, and for the first time (since 2020) it has run out. I need to add more, rather than taking pride in ignoring a hosepipe bab.