First Drought of the Year (And more to come...?)

Windle

Windle

Windle

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/4772373.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4932186.stm

Looks like there's more to come, with 2 more water companies having Drought Orders pending.

RESTRICTIONS
Filling of privately owned swimming pools other than for medical treatment
Watering of gardens and allotments, parks or sports or recreation surfaces by sprinkler or hosepipe
Filling of ornamental ponds other than fishponds
Operation of car washes
Washing of vehicles or aircraft other than for safety or hygiene
Cleaning of building exteriors other than windows and cleaning of industrial premises
Cleaning of windows by hosepipes or sprinklers
Operation of ornamental fountains or cascades
 
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That's just silly, if they fixed the damn leaks we wouldn't have a problem, don't get the thing about fountains either, it's not like they're hooked up to the mains, they just use a pump.
 
Drought? We have been having flooding up here!!! Stop been so tight fisted and buy some water, you have to buy(or steal) everything else from us so whats the problem?

(I/we/us = Scotland)
 
where the hell does our money go? its no going on the infistructure obviously!
fix the leeks and make more res if need be for crying out loud
 
It's amazing how many of my customers are starting to panic a bit & are filling their garages with bottled water from yours truly, nothing to do with the 'Beat The Drought' promo leaflets I gave out of course.
My bank manager wants a drought every year:)
 
VeNT said:
where the hell does our money go? its no going on the infistructure obviously!
fix the leeks and make more res if need be for crying out loud
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Reservoirs aren't the problem, it's the Aquifiers and Boreholes which are the problem. Reservoirs only supply 30% of the water we use, and they draw their water from Boreholes and Aquifiers. Southern water have the problem that the Aquifiers and Boreholes they have are at their lowest level in many years, so in turn the reservoirs could be full but they don't have any water to recharge with bar forced filling from Rivers.

Sinking more boreholes isn't really a solution either as it won't make a difference if there's another dry summer and dry winter. Fixing all the leaks in the network won't make a difference either, apart from the fact that leakage detection is very time consuming there's still too much demand on the network and this is made worse by the increasing numbers of new developments.

In the long term, southern england is going to have a severe problem unless there's a change in the weather patterns we've had these past few years.
 
Windle said:
Fixing all the leaks in the network won't make a difference either, apart from the fact that leakage detection is very time consuming there's still too much demand on the network and this is made worse by the increasing numbers of new developments.
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surely preventing millions of gallons of treated water leaking back into the ground would have an effect? it would mean there was more efficiency in the system?

the systems are ancient. need replacing. but imagine the work involved!
 
[font=Arial,Helvetica][font=Arial,Helvetica] Thames Water has the worst leakage level out of all the water and sewerage companies, losing just over one billion litres a day. Since 1992/93 the amount of water wasted through leaks has increased by nearly 35%. The amount of water lost every day is equivalent to 13.5 million baths full of water. Thames Water blames its bad record on the difficulties associated with supplying such a densely populated area. Ofwat, the water regulator, has set it a target that requires a 30% reduction in leaks for the year 1998/99. Thames also has a poor record on sewer flooding incidents, with 812 recorded in 1996/97, although the biggest offender in this category was North West Water with 949 incidents in the same year. [/font][/font]
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That's a lot of water to be losing.
 
I read at the weekend (can't remember which paper it was in and frankly can't be bothered to find the source to quote, but didn't they say that this drought in the South East could affect upto 17 million people.

Also in the same article they said that on average last year, the water companies lost enough water each day to support 24 million people.

The trouble with the South East, is instead of having nice boring fields and wetlands, instead they pave over vast amounts and build houses / roads / anything else with a concrete foundation that prevents water soaking into the table. This isn't a problem that has suddenly happened, its been developing for moany years, but the solution for the problem, De-Salinisation plants, or pumping water into the water table during the wetter months (all 11 of them) cost money and and that would upset the share holders.

So another great victory to the privitisation of the 80's and 90's comming home to roost.

If you live in the affected area, and your not on a meter, can you claim for a refund from the companies as you haven't had full use of the service?
 
Its a vicious circle - finding and fixing leaks costs a lot of money. Under the terms they were privatised under, water companies cant raise rates to pay for the fixes, and to pay for it out of their own pocket would reduce their profits, making it harder to raise money for further capital improvements.

Cheers Maggie.......
 
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