To not stick to the hosepipe ban

[inyourheads]

Because no other fucker has to?

We’ve been told no more watering our plants or using the hosepipe from midnight tonight. However, since this announcement:

• A local business has confirmed their splash pad will be operational everyday this week from 8am to 8pm. How many millions of litres of water will that use?
• The local water park has also confirmed they will be open. Using more water and wasting more water.
• The local golf course has reassured members that they are able to keep watering the greens, so playing experiences won’t be compromised!
• Local parks will continue to be watered to “provide a green space for everyone”.
• Car washes etc in the local area are still allowed to operate.

I feel like it’s totally ridiculous that all that is allowed to happen, but I can’t use my hosepipe!

We don't have a hose pipe ban here. But I'm trying to conserve water. Because I don't need to be told by The Man, or copy what other people are up to to understand that it's precious at the moment and not for wasting.
Tbh, I'm always careful with it anyway. Can't stand a running tap. I think it comes from 1976 and the way it was drilled in to me at a formative age.

We should move to proper market based pricing so you can just decide how much your hosepipe is worth to you. (And more importantly, incentivise and reward investment in water infrastructure which our regulators have continually blocked).

But given that we do have controlled prices, we need to ration somehow. In that case, prioritising businesses and common areas seems reasonable.

You can water your veg and important flowers with a watering can. It's good exercise doing a few trips back and forth.

Most important is leaving water out for the hedgehogs and birds.

The better answer is to invest in water infrastructure so that we don’t need to make that choice.

Unfortunately we have the worst combo of state control and private operators in this country, so it doesn’t happen. The water companies want to invest and the regulators block it, becuase they don’t want to see prices rise in the short term. The private operators don’t compete on price becuase they have a local monopoly, and investors are hesitant to fund long term investment becuase they can’t be assured that they will be allowed a return.

So: chronic underinvestment keeps supply low and prices high long term. High prices in the present because no local competition. Govt won’t fund becuase it competes with schools and hospitals, and the markets won’t fund becuase returns are controlled.

I'm ignoring it too. I have a few tomato plants in pots that are about 6 feet from my tap. I have a short length of hose connected to the tap to water them. I could use a watering can but I'm at a loss to understand what difference it would make. I'm not using a hose for anything else.

Unfortunately what something is worth to us isn't always conversent with what we can afford. Which when we're talking about luxuries is too bad. But market pricing has no place when it comes to the essentials. Jet washing your drive is obviously not an essential, but the same amount of water could be used by a family simply to meet hygiene needs.

Is food an essential?

Does market-based pricing have no place in supplying it?

I'd certainly be in favour of price capping on essential food items or a not for profit option for purchasing food. Because the numbers of people relying on food banks is escalating at frightening levels. However at least we have them. A community tap run by a charity would be rather more complex to provide.

Yes you are very unreasonable to keep watering your plants. Like or dislike water companies, but we are on our knees trying to keep up with demand. Hot weather makes the ground shift = broken pipes and burst rising mains. No amount of maintenance can help with that.

So please continue to water your plants whilst I and hundreds of others spend 7hrs a day on top of our day job handing out bottled water...

Yes. Because bees.

@5128gap The point about market prices is they create supply.

If people can’t afford water for a bath then we have a subsidy system (benefits) that can be used to address that.

If you try to solve it by rationing baths rather than building reservoirs then you will continue to have the problem.

Price-capping water is precisely the rationale used by water regulators to block private investment in reservoirs, as well as their judgment that it was not a priority. Central planners don’t have a great record on water
in the last few decades.

Also, rich shoppers buying lots of food at the supermarket probably doesn’t drive up prices for poor shoppers. It funds the infrastructure and brings down unit costs, into which the supermarket chains then offer basics-range at far below what it would cost if they had to charge a single mandated price.

Reminds me of the covid lock downs, seeing how we all conform.

I totally get that water is precious and we are going through a drout but at the end of the day is it purely the water boards mismanagement and inefficiency that is the problem. Millions and millions of houses being built hence more people need the water, no work being done to make the reservoirs bigger etc to handle the extra consumption yet they still all get the big fat cheques and bonuses. The worst thing was for the water boards to be privatised, as they are now run like a business and not a facility needed.

I will be using my hosepipe but I am careful with it. I only water my garden every other day now rather than every day, and I pinch the hose between plants so it doesn't just run out onto the grass/patio.

Maybe than just expect the public to conform, the water boards should pull their fingers out of their arse and sort out the problem. In the history of hosepipe bans, no one has ever been fined for breaking it. As they are a private company they have no power to issue on the spot fines and would have to take you through the courts, which would cost them more than the fine.

I think that’s a reasonable proposal. Market pricing for water, combined with some caps on cost for, say, a certain minimum amount or for the poorest people. Or subsidies funded by govt or charity.

Who do you mean by the water boards? The main reason infrastructure hasn’t been built is becuase regulators blocked the proposals that have come from private water companies.

eg Thames Water applied to build a big reservoir at Abington in 2011, the govt blocked it saying it wasn’t needed. Govt now says it’s urgent and must be fast-tracked.

We aren’t using the hose for the garden, the lawn is brown but it will recover. I’m using a watering can to water my herb bed but we don’t have flowers or plants. Dh uses the hose for washing out the hen house a couple of times a week, there is red mite in the house so it’s important to clean and dry and air it out regularly. He also uses the hose to
refill their water 3 times a week. It contains a finite amount of water so it would be the same using multiple watering cans or the hose.
The lawn looks a bit sad of course but hey ho.

You sound a like child who says "but everyone else is doing it"

Grow up. Using up water when it is scarce just on principle won't magic any up if it doesn't rain and will only escalate the need for standpipes.

Use your logic and stop being such a selfish self entitled idiot!