Hosepipe ban

[ninja-lewis]

dandarez said:

No. Hardly comparable though.

That'll be the day when a Leccy company enforces me to not use my power-washer!

Don't electricity companies (or perhaps the National Grid directly) already have contracts with industrial customers that allow them to cut supply at short notice to cope with temporary supply issues/peak demand?

[Megaflow]

Puggit said:

Megaflow said:

oyster said:

Hosepipe is a seriously lazy way to wash a car anyway.

For rinsing after washing, before drying, how else can you do it?

2 buckets of clean water...

I use a 10 ltr bucket for washing the car, well technically two, so two buckets of water is probably more water than a quick 30 rinse down with the hose.

But that's alright, because it's not a hose...

[traxx]

In any other business if you agree to sell something, then its your problem to sort it out. Its wrong that these guys can just turn around and get a hose pipe ban to get them out of their mess. They should have to pay to ship the water in by tanker if that's what it takes.

Also perhaps if they hadn't sold off so many of their water reservoirs to build housing they wouldn't have this problem

[PRTVR]

traxx said:

In any other business if you agree to sell something, then its your problem to sort it out. Its wrong that these guys can just turn around and get a hose pipe ban to get them out of their mess. They should have to pay to ship the water in by tanker if that's what it takes.

Also perhaps if they hadn't sold off so many of their water reservoirs to build housing they wouldn't have this problem

Also if the guberment had really believed in MMGW and the associated water shortage they would have planned for this and built more reservoirs, or at least told the water companies to.
But no we have a rising population in the south and a reduced supply of water and the water companies imposing hose pipe ban because its a cheap option.

[MKnight702]

PRTVR said:

Also if the guberment had really believed in MMGW and the associated water shortage they would have planned for this and built more reservoirs, or at least told the water companies to.
But no we have a rising population in the south and a reduced supply of water and the water companies imposing hose pipe ban because its a cheap option.

Personally, I can't see the issue here. In my area (Anglian Water) we haven't had a hosepipe ban in years. This year they have announced one due to the lack of rain over the last few months leading to reservoirs having less than ideal fill levels. Building more reservoirs isn't going to cause more rain to fall, so with what did you think these extra ones would be filled by?

Yes, supply is lost through leaky pipes, but as has been said before the percentage is small and some areas are better than others. Plus it is in the water companies own interest to reduce the losses as that is a "free" cost reduction given that they have paid to process the water but then lose the sale as no-one gets to consume it.

Oh and the alternative to a private company supplying water would be a nationalised industry, I'll give you two guess whether this is likely to be a better option, (just look at any Government project or Public Sector company for a clue).

[Old Merc]

Does this mean auto car washes will be shut down ?? bet it wont!! Cant use a hose pipe to wash your car but you can use a car wash @ £6 a time,how many gallons does one of those use an hour?
Just a thought?? any smart lawyer out there? I have water meter and pay for all my water.So the water coming out of the hose pipe is my property,is it? and I can do what I want with it.
Joking apart all this is really stupid.The utility companies are ripping us off and can not be doing a proper job,the UK is surrounded by water,there are lakes and rivers all over the place,and it has been known to rain in the UK.Just what is going on? I have just returned from Oman,its hot,lots and lots of sand and does not rain very often,but it appears to have plenty of water.Every where I went there was someone with a hose pipe keeping everything green and lush.

Edited by Old Merc on Monday 12th March 17:37

[KaraK]

MKnight702 said:

PRTVR said:

Also if the guberment had really believed in MMGW and the associated water shortage they would have planned for this and built more reservoirs, or at least told the water companies to.
But no we have a rising population in the south and a reduced supply of water and the water companies imposing hose pipe ban because its a cheap option.

Personally, I can't see the issue here. In my area (Anglian Water) we haven't had a hosepipe ban in years. This year they have announced one due to the lack of rain over the last few months leading to reservoirs having less than ideal fill levels. Building more reservoirs isn't going to cause more rain to fall, so with what did you think these extra ones would be filled by?

Yes, supply is lost through leaky pipes, but as has been said before the percentage is small and some areas are better than others. Plus it is in the water companies own interest to reduce the losses as that is a "free" cost reduction given that they have paid to process the water but then lose the sale as no-one gets to consume it.

Oh and the alternative to a private company supplying water would be a nationalised industry, I'll give you two guess whether this is likely to be a better option, (just look at any Government project or Public Sector company for a clue).

More reservoirs would help with issue - imagine if you put a bucket out side your house when it was raining and it rained long enough to fill half the bucket. That's your reservoir, now imagine if you had put two buckets outside during the same rain.

I know I'm oversimplifying a bit since buckets only collect what falls on them directly and not associated run off from the nearby land etc but for the sake of sanity assume that the two reservoirs are geographically far enough apart so that they don't have overlapping run-off catchments.

[Jimbo.]

Megaflow said:

They can try. But they aren't going to stop me using a hosepipe to wash the car when the industry loses 3,393,750 litres per day through leaks.

Yes, three million four hundread thousand litres per day or 1,238,718,750 litres per year...

And where does that go? Back into the groundwater, so most (if not all) of it goes back into the system.

[Jimbo.]

johnfm said:

Is the South East not surrounded by seawater?

Desalinate some of that...

Sure. Want to pay for it?

[Jimbo.]

Just what is going on?

Groundwater reserves get topped-up during the winter, drained in the summer. Nice little arrangement until you get two very dry winters yet demand over the summer stays the same. The stats on the EAs Water Situation Reports make for "interesting" reading...

I have just returned from Oman,its hot,lots and lots of sand and does not rain very often,but it appears to have plenty of water.Every where I went there was someone with a hose pipe keeping everything green and lush.

Desalinisation, I suspect. Expensive and energy intensive (making it more expensive). They can afford it. The water bill/rate payers in the UK won't pay for it.

[colonel c]

I seem to recall plans for building a dam across The Wash. That could provide water for most of the Midlands and East Anglia. I don't know if it was ever a realistic proposition but must be worth investigating.

[Ozzie Osmond]

I should think this will decimate a number of garden centre businesses who would normally be looking forward to their peak spring sales.

[colonel c]

MKnight702 said:

Oh and the alternative to a private company supplying water would be a nationalised industry, I'll give you two guess whether this is likely to be a better option, (just look at any Government project or Public Sector company for a clue).

I can't say that my water supply and costs have been any better sin privatization in the late 1980s but at least the money we paid for our water did not get syphoned off to foreign companies back then.

[Willy Nilly]

traxx said:

In any other business if you agree to sell something, then its your problem to sort it out. Its wrong that these guys can just turn around and get a hose pipe ban to get them out of their mess. They should have to pay to ship the water in by tanker if that's what it takes.

Also perhaps if they hadn't sold off so many of their water reservoirs to build housing they wouldn't have this problem

It is not the water companies fault it hasn't rained much. Personally, I think they should just up the price up and let the laws of supply and demand.

[Mermaid]

Zaxxon said:

You mean that I won't be allowed to play with my Karcher?

Technically not a hosepipe, and if connected direct to the tap would seem to exempt it. But it is not, seen the small print somewhere.

[RYH64E]

Do we get a rebate from our water rates bill to reflect the fact that our service has been restricted?

[neilr]

Willy Nilly said:

It is not the water companies fault it hasn't rained much. Personally, I think they should just up the price up and let the laws of supply and demand.

Hardly drought conditions last year was it though. Round my way it was an appauling summer, June and July were unseasonally rainy.

As for people saying they don't lose much through pipes. I'd like to see evidance for that. I rememeber 4-5 years ago seeing a documentary about this very problem, Thames Water were losing something like 15% of water going though old victorian piping, that they didnt want to repair as it would obviousley affect their bottom line. Lets face it, profit is more important than water isn't it.

Things may have changed but until I see some proof of this I'll remain very sceptical. Hosepipe ban after a wet year, somethings rotten in denmark.

[Jimbo.]

colonel c said:

I seem to recall plans for building a dam across The Wash. That could provide water for most of the Midlands and East Anglia. I don't know if it was ever a realistic proposition but must be worth investigating.

Who'd pay for it? Not that it matters as it's simply not realistic: it'd have to be HUGE, and would make a right royal mess of the coast both there and all around East Anglia.

[Jimbo.]

neilr said:

Hardly drought conditions last year was it though. Round my way it was an appauling summer, June and July were unseasonally rainy.

As for people saying they don't lose much through pipes. I'd like to see evidance for that. I rememeber 4-5 years ago seeing a documentary about this very problem, Thames Water were losing something like 15% of water going though old victorian piping, that they didnt want to repair as it would obviousley affect their bottom line. Lets face it, profit is more important than water isn't it.

Things may have changed but until I see some proof of this I'll remain very sceptical. Hosepipe ban after a wet year, somethings rotten in denmark.

Two seemingly wet months which didn't make up for the dry winter/spring which preceded it, nor the winter which followed it.

[PRTVR]

Willy Nilly said:

traxx said:

In any other business if you agree to sell something, then its your problem to sort it out. Its wrong that these guys can just turn around and get a hose pipe ban to get them out of their mess. They should have to pay to ship the water in by tanker if that's what it takes.

Also perhaps if they hadn't sold off so many of their water reservoirs to build housing they wouldn't have this problem

It is not the water companies fault it hasn't rained much. Personally, I think they should just up the price up and let the laws of supply and demand.

But is not the problem that the water companies have failed to increase supply when deman increased?.
I would like to know how many new reservoirs have ben built since privatization, my guess would be none,so we were told that there would be less rain due to global warming and the population is increasing,
So the responsibility is theirs, it can be done, in the north east I can not remember a hosepipe ban, one year they even ran road tanker to the leeds area due to a shortage in yorkshire.