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Hosepipe ban!
Colnago_Man - 8/7/10 at 05:01 PM

Great! Despite living in the wettest part of the country we have now have a hose pipe ban from 6am tommorow morning for an indefinte period.

So tonight I'll be washing three cars and watering the gardens, as will no doubt half the town.

Bizarely if you are disabled then you are excluded from the ban, not entirely sure on the logic on that one...

My mates house was under 3 foot of water last October due to the amount of rain, funny thing nature...

[Edited on 8/7/10 by Colnago_Man]


thunderace - 8/7/10 at 05:24 PM

yes very unfair ,i have never heard of a hosepipe ban in london ever but i have been told ,i dont know if its true or not but they drink there p!ss water up to 9 times before it goes to the sea thats why i will never drink the water out a tap in england.:


mangogrooveworkshop - 8/7/10 at 05:25 PM

Its because of this country's total lack of understanding regarding drainage and dams.....

The other thing is your private water quangos sold off lots of the small ones .....cause they cost to much


theconrodkid - 8/7/10 at 05:35 PM

we have had bans down here before.
i drive over the cart tracks we use as roads and see puddles everywhere where a main has burst but never repaired,anyhow it,s a good excuse for not washing my fleet


Guinness - 8/7/10 at 05:36 PM

If I was you, I'd be buying / fitting a couple of water butts and filling them up tonight

We have two water butts on our downpipes, only 11 gallon slimline ones, but they can go from empty to full in about half an hour of decent rain. Well worth the while, if your water is metered, or you live in an area with restrictions.

Mike


David Jenkins - 8/7/10 at 06:16 PM

I live in East Anglia, which geographically categorised as "semi-desert" (around 20 inches of rain per annum). We rarely get hosepipe bans, possibly because we try very hard to keep hold of the water we've got and not waste it in leaks, etc.

It always amazes me to hear about places like Yorkshire and Wales having hosepipe bans - it never stops raining in those places!

(as this Welshman ducks below the parapet... "incoming!" )


smart51 - 8/7/10 at 07:23 PM

The trouble is that we haven't had much rain for months and the reservoirs are running low. We haven't built any reservoirs in decades - in fact we've filled in a few. The population has gone up and we wonder why we run short of water when we get a dry spell. Mind you, can you imagine the fuss that NIMBYs would raise if the council put in a planning application to build a reservoir? Actually, ask the people of Oxfordshire, there's a plan on the go there.


plantman - 8/7/10 at 07:43 PM

Oooo here we go again

I,ve got a mate who did the water quality for south staffs water, he told me that most of our water come from bored holes 70%plus, obviously there is no way the few resevoirs can supply all the people in the uk

Bore holes are cheap clean and the ground water stays fairly constant The rain/rivers fill the rocks up first.

anyway he said that there is loads of water but what it is the water companies have deals with big companies to supply water.

so to make sure they can meet these commitments they stop us from using it.

Oh and he told me of a meeting they had a few years ago when they were short of water and the decided to pump some more!!!

4kms from me severn trent have 3 bores holes that can do over 1 million gallons a day they use it to top up the severn!!!

Water shortage NOOO they just don't want joe pubic to have it


Ninehigh - 8/7/10 at 08:39 PM

When someone can explain to me how an ISLAND can run out of water then I'll stick to a hosepipe ban. I can understand the water not being entirely drinkable in dry conditions but we're surrounded by it.


Mark Allanson - 8/7/10 at 09:00 PM

Most people in Cornwall pay about £1000-£1600 pa in water bills, if our French owned reservoirs run low, I expect naked parisian virgins to be emptying half litre bottles of Evian into the system until it is full again.

froggy b@stards taking the pi$$ as usual


coozer - 8/7/10 at 09:04 PM

I have a 1KL IBC in the garden that fills up real quick off the garage roof, in fact I tend to empty over 700L of it out every year.

My next plan is to run it up to the bog so I'm not paying for water to wash the sh1t and pi55 away

My water comes from a bore hole next to the Aston garage on the A690 which I expect is brimming since they stopped pumping the mine water.


jase380 - 8/7/10 at 09:15 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Mark Allanson
Most people in Cornwall pay about £1000-£1600 pa in water bills, if our French owned reservoirs run low, I expect naked parisian virgins to be emptying half litre bottles of Evian into the system until it is full again.

froggy b@stards taking the pi$$ as usual


Wise words !!


David Jenkins - 8/7/10 at 09:16 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Ninehigh
When someone can explain to me how an ISLAND can run out of water then I'll stick to a hosepipe ban. I can understand the water not being entirely drinkable in dry conditions but we're surrounded by it.


Have you tried drinking sea water!

It's also astonishingly expensive (and consumes much power) to desalinate it so that it's drinkable.


smart51 - 8/7/10 at 09:18 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Ninehigh
When someone can explain to me how an ISLAND can run out of water then I'll stick to a hosepipe ban.


We're running out of DRINKABLE water. If you want to drink sea water, go right ahead. we have too much of that.

You can desalinate sea water but it takes VAST amounts of electricity and even then the water tastes like a swimming pool. Not only does the electricity make the water very expensive but we are on the verge of an electricity shortage too.


drhunter - 8/7/10 at 11:54 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Guinness
If I was you, I'd be buying / fitting a couple of water butts and filling them up tonight

Didn't an MP or similar skirt the London ban of previous years by filling a water butt from the mains, then using a hose from the water butt to water his garden.

I have a 100L slimline but need another as I can empty it in a couple of days. They do fill up extremely quickly, even with only light rainfall.


Ninehigh - 9/7/10 at 05:46 AM

quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
quote:
Originally posted by Ninehigh
When someone can explain to me how an ISLAND can run out of water then I'll stick to a hosepipe ban. I can understand the water not being entirely drinkable in dry conditions but we're surrounded by it.


Have you tried drinking sea water!

It's also astonishingly expensive (and consumes much power) to desalinate it so that it's drinkable.


Well yeah that's why I said I can handle it not being entirely drinkable, I could deal with having to buy bottled water for a few months


Peteff - 9/7/10 at 09:20 AM

quote:
Originally posted by smart51
Mind you, can you imagine the fuss that NIMBYs would raise if the council put in a planning application to build a reservoir? Actually, ask the people of Oxfordshire, there's a plan on the go there.


They don't build reservoirs, they build dams to create reservoirs. If there was as much money in water as there is in oil they'd soon find ways to store a lot more of it. Go to Papplewick pumping station and look at the architecture of the now empty underground reservoir, it's like a cathedral and was built entirely in brick then covered over to prevent loss.


mistergrumpy - 9/7/10 at 09:24 AM

Where's that Pete? Sounds really interesting (in a geeky kind of way I know!).


MikeR - 9/7/10 at 09:27 AM

i was just thinking the same


mistergrumpy - 9/7/10 at 09:31 AM

Just answered my own question.
It Nottingham here.
Have a look at reservoir 1 and 2 pictures. Awsome pieces of work.
Here's one.


MikeR - 9/7/10 at 09:33 AM

i'd just googled it and found that as well .....


smart51 - 9/7/10 at 09:47 AM

Here's an idea. Make the water companies (who make profits from supplying water) legally responsible for maintaining supplies and building the infrastructure to do so. If they want to introduce demand reducing measures such as hose pipe bans, let them but fine them per day per person affected. Lets see if they'd rather spend the money on infrastructure. A bit of weather isn't an excuse for water shortages.

Like the idea? Write to your MP. That's what they're there for.