To stick to the hosepipe ban …

[HosePipeNoMore]

… and to think that people who don’t are selfish with no consideration of the overall good of society.

Sometimes I leave the tap running for ages, when I don't even need any water.

Just for the thrill.

Maybe I should start getting out more.

I generally comply but it's frustrating that it's such a blunt instrument. I am amazed at the amount of water some households use unnecessarily on a daily basis. I feel that overall we use much less in our house and me watering the plants with the hose still leaves us way under their level of usage. But unfortunately there's not really a way for this to be reflected in a usage limitation scenario.

Good grief, how selfish

Until the water companies take fixing leaks seriously, I won’t be paying the slightest bit of attention to any hosepipe ban.

There are lots of ways of saving water other than hosepipe bans, but most of them aren't enforceable. (I'm not sure how much enforcing goes on, but perhaps at least the feeling that people will notice and disapprove has some effect.) I think those who keep to hosepipe bans probably also try to reduce water use in other ways, and those who don't may do other things instead.
Some people don't realise just how much water a hosepipe or sprinkler gets through - I did find the figures for a family member who thought not flushing the toilet as often would compensate.

I wonder whether, now so many people have water meters, it would work better to incentivise people to cut use that way - some sort of cashback if you reduce use significantly during a shortage. The problem is that it might encourage people to be more wasteful of water before a ban comes in, so that they could show a reduction.

Another possibility might be to massively increase the cost of water above a certain threshold - so each household gets an allowance of water per person which is charged at a lower rate, and anything above that would be charged considerably more (and perhaps massively more in drought periods). That way, those who run sprinklers and fill massive garden pools might think twice. You'd probably want some system of extra allowances for those with particular needs, eg for extra laundry.

Just an excuse to be selfish

If the water companies hadn't pocketed billions and had built reservoirs instead. If the government didn't keep building hundreds of thousands of homes on green belt/drainage land. If the population hadn't risen by millions in just decades, etc etc. We don't need to be in this position.

Oh well 🙄

The privatisation of and lack of sanctions for water companies are the problem - we have some of the worst water in Europe.

It needs to be renationalised.

If people sacking off the hose pipe ban because they want to use water and are paying £150 pm and being told they need to let their plants die pushes it to a head / up the agenda then frankly I am not against it.

I mean, good for you for abiding rules and I won’t criticise you for it obviously, but I think the hosepipe ban is silly. It would be much better to raise awareness about saving water and ask people to do their bit. For example, I don’t ever have a bath, only showers. But I do want to put out a tiny toddler paddling pool when it’s very hot. This paddling pool is out for a few days per year and takes less water than a bath. Some people have baths a few times per week all year. As long as that’s acceptable, then my toddler paddling pool for a few hot days should also be acceptable. And whether I fill it with a hosepipe or buckets, it will take the same amount of water.

I'm using a watering can and it's made me decide that next summer, in case we get this intense heat again, I am not going to have as many pots and tubs of plants as trudging up and down the garden to water them all is seriously annoying.

I have a couple of pots with tomatoes in and one large tub with dwarf beans so they get priority currently. The rest do ok and the plants in the garden seem to manage reasonably well too.

Although I come under Southern Water for sewage, our water is with someone else and we do not have a hosepipe ban currently. I will still just use the watering cans though.

The lawn is crispy and brown but I would never water it, I consider that would be truly wasteful.

I guess that is an attempt at a joke

Probably true but we are in this position so we need to work from where we are.

😕
Not sticking to it won't magic up water for you or anyone else when it runs out.
However, I agree with your sentiments about the water companies.
We had a hosepipe ban for several months last year, but Yorkshire Water are saying that they don't anticipate one this year as yet as our reservoirs are in much better shape than this time last year.

What a moron. An extra 10 to 15 million people drinking from the same puddle that existed in 1995 and we won't run out of water? Even if not one single drop leaked away within the network, how will not paying shareholders increase rainfall?

I don't recall voting to import millions of people. That must have passed me by. Apologies.

Me too! It took an hour a day to water all our pots and barrels using the hosepipe so it’s taking even longer now for both of us to do it using watering cans from the waterbutt.

I was listening to a lady speaking yesterday and she said hosepipe bans around the world were mostly because of people washing cars, power hosing driveways and watering their flowers and lawns. I had assumed it was all of us washing clothes due to the drying to be honest!! I can’t believe those things are what are putting water systems over capacity- your car s as if tour driveway- wait til it bloody rains!!!! She also said using a watering can saves litres and if she had her way paddling pools would be banned, that a cold shower and staying in shade or inside is equivalent to cool your kids down- she said if the water system breaks we’ve a lot more worries to be had then having some splashy fun outside

I didn't vote for it either. I will be doing so next time, however.

Banning people from using something they pay for is utterly ridiculous. I've booked a holiday, can they cancel the plane and still charge me?

Water is so ridiculously expensive I don't know how people afford to use hosepipe, tbh.

Society is so much more selfish these days. I’m old enough to remember all using the same bath water in the heatwave of 1976 and then my dad siphoning it out to water the garden.

Could you get up a hosepipe from the bathroom window into the garden and setup a syphon? Assuming your bath in on the first floor it should work well and you will guilt free get to water your plants.

New build houses should have grey water recovery built in - but won’t unless building regulations insist on it. Water from baths, showers washing machines could go into a grey tank (with a basic filter system) which can be used for watering plants etc…

We are not on a water meter here

The hosepipe bans really annoy me. I have a 2 year old and a black lab. The easier way to keep them happy and cool in this heat is our paddling pool. It’s a fairly shallow on but we do need to empty and refill it. This is what we use our hosepipe for. We water the garden with cans most of the time. And don’t waste water elsewhere but this will make the heatwaves harder.