hosepipe/water ban

[nikita**]

What do you think of the hosepipe ban? Water companies could apply for drought orders from the Department for the Environment which could mean further ban and price increase.

[nikita**]

There is a ban on hosepipe use in london and london area at the moment. But who would use hosepipe at this time of year?

[WaldoMcFroog]

It's entirely reasonable that if water is in short supply that they may need to take steps to limit the amounts households use.

However, a cynical man might look at their vast profits and wonder if some of that might not pay to mend the fractured pipes through which they lose 1/3 of all carried water...

[nikita**]

Apparently the water companies lost 900 million gallons of water last year alone through burst pipes. How? Burst pipes cannot be the only blame.

[ianess]

If we did away with the necessity of requiring all mains water to be of drinking water quality then there wouldn't be a shortage. Do we really need to flush our toilets with purified water?
Other countries get by with buying bottled water and our supermarkets are full of the stuff so where is the problem?
Or is it all just the usual South-East of England hysteria raising its ugly head yet again?

[spacechimp]

We are civilised ianess. Our toilets are not just some s***holes for any old c**p.

[nikita**]

I'd like to know why the water authorities with huge profits are not doing enough to solve this problem? We obviously cannot afford to waste our water so why is 900 million litres of water wasted through leakages? Surly the water authorities are irresponsible for this and should be blamed. Where does the money go when we all pay our bills?

[LionNo4]

Three quarters of the earths surface is covered in water,but they have a hose pipe ban.must be some logic in there somewhere.

[nikita**]

Well, we get flooding down the end of our garden whenever it rains. A wealthy country like ours and a profit making water authority - surly they can conserve water just like they do in countries where it hardly ever rains. A large company not far from here uses sprinklers regularly - water ban on or not. If the situation was so desperate, why don't they ban car washes. Large corporate companies don't seem to apply the rules when the ban is on. Strange?

[nikita**]

I am appalled that Thames Water is still not getting on top of the huge increase of water leakage. I do not accept its excuse that abnormal winter weather conditions are to blame. We had a burst water pipe down the road last month. It went on for hours before Thames Water finally turned up. THey should be penalised, not us.

[nikita**]

The water leaks could supply 11 million homes last year according to This is Money news printed last July 05.

I certainly will not water my garden when there is a hosepipe ban but it seems bizaar when business are allowed to use as much as they want.

[gary baldy]

I'm appalled that the poncey southerners are gonna nick our water so they can water their gardens!
Hands off - its ours and we have to put up with the rain to get it.
Besides we need it to wash our flat caps, give our whippets a bath and to hose down our cobbled streets.

[Drisgirl]

I think they are being a bit presumtious in their aticipation of a hosepipe ban - are they not frozen anyway?

Anway come up to Bonnie Scotland - after our overnight blitz on Sat/Sun we now have the floods to look forward to and boy will we get them.Housebaound virtually for 2 days and now we wont be able to get anywhere cos the roads will be flooded - least where I am.Just hope the flood barriers hold up.

Anyway nikita - get in touch with them and ask what you are paying your water rates for - stir them up!!

[Drisgirl]

Sorry for typos - good song on The Box.(Black Eyed Peas)

Ianess made a good point.When we are abroad everyone buys water and as you all will know the supermarkets are stacked with it at dirt cheap prices.

Now I know we are already paying for the privelage of water but I would rather buy it and pay less rates.

[don1]

If the people of this country hadn't been dumb enough to vote for Tory privatisation we wouldn't have a problem.

Before privatisation the only drought situation in my lifetime was around 1960 when it didn't rain for several months, now under privatisation we have droughts in winter when it's raining?

[nikita**]

Had'nt you noticed Don 1, THIS government is Tory?

[Booldawg]

Ha Ha Gary Baldy, doesnt most of your water get sold to the French anyway?

[don1]

Yes Nikita I am quite aware that this government is tory, the sickening thing is that we now have no choice at all, we can have one tory government or the other tory government.

[johnlambert]

don1, mate I remember the drought in 1976, wasn't there a labour govt back then? dont blame the Tories pal, look at the trouble we're in now with this shambles. Blair + co couldnt run a bath let alone a country

[andy-hughes]

The problem with the water supply is the same as with every other utility - profit.

If you employ executives with a financial incentive to save money, you have got problems, no matter what kind of company you are running - gas, electricity, water, trains, the principle is the same - the driving force behind the business is making a profit.

The simple answer is to re-nationailse all the utilities and put the 'profits' back into replacing infrastructure which has been systematically overlooked for decades.

It's not difficult - the problem is, in order to be able to make an effective change, you have to have already proved that you are happy with the system as it operates now.

Surface water is not lying long enough to pass through the soil and replenish the subterranian water table, and this, combined with increasingly dry spells ensures that this problem will only get worse. Effective replacement and maintenance of the water piping system is the answer, but that will never happen when shareholders are expecting dividends from their investments.

Privatise - the utilities belonged to all of us in the first place - time to hand them back.