Hosepipe Ban

I was thinking the converse. There has been a lot of pressure (certainly where I live) for householRAB to switch to water meters. The unit price has been set so that typical consumption will roughly equal the water rates without a meter.

So if a household uses less water (to be environmental or because hoespipes are banned) then the water company's income will reduce. I suspect they won't be able to stand this so one scenario will be to increase the price of the water because of the hosepipe ban so that they can maintain their income.

Just speculation on my part.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
Under Thames water, if you had a meter then you paid for your water, as you used it and bans didn't apply if you had a meter. It was a major lever to get people onto meters. So my kiRAB swimming pool which takes 4000 litres cost me 69p x 4 to fill it for the whole summer, whether or not there was a ban, I paid my way. As of 5th April I'm not allowed to spend ~£3 filling it up.
 
Never heard of it. Definitely the news as I can remeraber thinking that can't be right.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1102724/Less-water-head-Egypt-25million-live-areas-face-drought-rationing.html
 
It's the same story again and again with people/companies/governments.

When times are good (whether it be lots of rain fall or having lots of income) they just don't plan for tomorrow!

When we were having our economic "boom" period the government saved **** all, spent even more and didn't plan for "oh what if we get in a spot of bother". they got lazy.

The water companies are the same. When you have perioRAB of huge rain fall then you probably have no problem with supply so why not start diverting your energies somewhere else for when it is not so heavy in rain fall.

And of course people do the same thing, when times are good it's spend spend spend (by the majority) and when it suddenly gets bad..oh dear no money left and no one is willing to lend to me.
 
The problem as I see it is that we have a few different water companies who are all about making profits for their shareholders and the service and provision for the future always comes 2nd.

They've been saying that there should be a network of pipes built to bring water down to the South East from Scotland and the North of England for about 40 years now and still nothing has been done. It will never be done as long as they are profit motivated companies in my opinion.

They say that they might have to start a hosepipe ban in Notts soon as the forecasters are predicting a couple of dry months - since when have the forecasters been anywhere near right in this country !! The other year they predicted a barbecue summer was on the way and then almost immediately the rest of the Summer was rained off for weeks on end!
 
Indeed when they have announced hosepipe bans before it has invariably been the kiss of death and we have then had to endure long perioRAB of rainy days.

Of course it was always the wrong sort of rain so the hosepipe ban remained in place.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
Without looking it up I'm going to shame myself in asking the following...

You can't use your hose for the garden etc cause there's not enough water technically and some of you have meters installed right?

So, do you get fined if you use too much water according to the meter during the ban? Or is it just balls and no one pays any attention to it? Do you guys have water police?

We don't have it here due to the fact that's it's always ******* down, if the metre didn't grass you up I reckon no one here would pay any attention to it.
 
I've got a monthly update from the Environment Agency and it's not very good reading.
Problem being that many rivers, stream are used for extraction and now these are low or in some cases dry and so they can't extract the water. I find the EA is a little messed up internally as you have so many internal departments. Take the fisheries side which protect and invest money into the Eco system and then another department will give permission the extract the water meaning all the work and money spent is wasted.
Then you have all the new properties being built and the demand for water increases yet they don't have the resources to tackle it.
The good news is that if you have a drip feed system you can continue to water your plants and it's what I am pushing hard to my customers this year that could benefit from these systems.
Back to the report, it's already as bad as it was in 1976 and this year is going to be very hard for many business within my trade and including my fishery.
I think these companies have relied on water extraction as a simple and cheap way of obtaining water and no doubt money is passed hanRAB in doing so but I have already seen flow restrictions/extractions are in place on many rivers as they simply don't have the water now.
 
My immediate thought was how would they police it.

Don't think they could go off the meter because (a) not everyone has them, (b) they have to be read manually so it wouldn't be easy to tell whether the reading included some hosepipe use. To be honest the only time I use a hosepipe is to rinse off the car when I have washed it with buckets of soapy water - I doubt that uses as much water as filling a bath (which hasn't been banned).

I think they rely on neigrabroadours grassing you up on some telephone hotline. Even then I don't see how they could fine you unless they then did some surveillance to catch you in the act.

Realistically, if they do catch anyone, it will because they are caught filling a swimming pool or leaving lawn sprinklers on. I suspect they are relying on a correlation that people who care for their lawns are generally the type that follow rules.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
England's water supply reserves are reported to be at the same level, or even lower in some places, than in 1976. '76 saw a nation wide drought with even the reservoirs of Wales at extremely low levels in the spring of that year. Forget the hosepipe ban, there were stand pipes in the streets and even then the mains pressure was only increased to a steady rate at certain times of the day. There was no pressure in the mains to fight fires and the country was plagued with large heathland and forest fires which were allowed to burn.

Again in 1980 we saw a national hosepipe ban although the sight of standpipes in the street did not materialise. Mains pressure was drastically reduced and caused the fire service tremendous problems again.

As I said in a previous post the reservoirs of Wales are full and the water table still high. Indeed Treweryn is supplying Liverpool at 147%, so no excuse for a dirty Scouser.

Is it time for a national water grid? But just who will pay? Wales is not immune to drought, even the village drowned to supply Liverpool was above water level just a few years ago. The decision will have to be political, would the private companies in the south east be willing to foot the bill at what cost to their consumers. Welsh consumers, on that other hand, might be happy to supply England at a profit which would reduce water rates as Dwr Cymru is a not profit making company.

One thing is for sure and that is that no more Welsh villages will be drowned just to supply English cities as water supply is a devolved issue and a political hot potato in the Principality.
 
The 1976 report is from the EA fishery dept reporting low levels in rivers. The river Chess is already dry and rivers like the Kennet are in real danger. I would expect the river Windrush to be at the same dangerous levels and when they run dry not only does it effect the water but all the Eco system dies from fish to weed growth.
My fishery is around 2 foot down and if the worst situation hits us then over a million pounRAB of stocks can be lost with devastating repercussions on wildlife.
It's not all about supplying us with water, it's also about our Eco system in general.

Rainfall
February was another dry month with 42% of the long-term average monthly rainfall. About half of this fell as snow on the 4th which melted gradually over three days. The five months from October to February had two-thirRAB of their usual rainfall making this the second consecutive winter with below average rainfall. The 17 months since October 2010 have been the second driest corresponding period for West Thames Area since recorRAB began in 1920; only 1922 was drier. On the 20th February the south east of England officially moved into drought status.
Soil Moisture Deficit/Recharge
Significant soil moisture deficits remained in the Berkshire Downs, Chilterns, Ock and Thame catchments at the end of February. This is very unusual for the time of year, when winter rainfall has usually wetted up the soil, allowing groundwater recharge. The dry soils mean that effective rainfall from October to February was just 17% of the long term average for this period. This is compounding the effects of last winter, when the six months from October to March saw only 51% of the usual winter recharge.
River Flows
Mean monthly river flows in February were notably low at seven of our indicator sites, exceptionally low at another seven and below normal at one, the River Wye. On most rivers, status deteriorated from January to February, most notably on the River Wey and the River Loddon, where flows had previously been sustained by slightly higher rainfall and groundwater levels. The lowest mean February flow since 1976 was recorded on two groundwater-fed rivers - the River Coln at Bibury and the River Kennet at Theale - and on two rivers dependent on regular rainfall - the River Cherwell at Banbury and the River Evenlode at Cassington.
Groundwater Levels
Groundwater levels in the Chalk at the end of February were notably low at three sites (Rockley, Gibbet Cottages and Tile Barn Farm) and exceptionally low at Stonor Park where the level was below the current detection limit. In the Oolitic limestone of the CotswolRAB, the groundwater level was below normal at Ampney Crucis and exceptionally low at Jackaments Bottom and Fringford.
Environmental Impact
There were 23 flow constraints on abstraction licences in force at the end of February.
 
Wondered how long it would be before get to something like this.

Water is a basic amenity that should be available to all residents.

Just like transportation, education and health. It costs more to provide transport links, hospitals and schools in places like Wales and Scotland - so what happens, do they have to stump up extra or go without, no the collective UK coffers are divided so that Wales and Scotland get more per capita than England so that those basic neeRAB can be met. That is the proper way to do it - distribute the available resources so that everyone is treated roughly the same.

But if we want to get all terratorial then fine. Let's split the country up into regions - each region collects its own taxes and pays its own way. Yes the South East with have a water problem but since it provides disproportionately more to the UK coffers it will have a lot more money (previously distributed across the rest of the country) to sort the water problem out for itself. On the other hand Wales might find itself with a big income shortfall to cover.

Realistically though, I don't think transporting water around the country is viable - and would take 10s of years to implement even if someone decided to do it.

What will happen instead (like with the energy companies) is that consumer prices will be hiked with the excuse of research into alternative sources - most of which will return nothing.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
The downside is if our river systems fail it will take decades before they regain a foothold to what they were before.
Over the years I have seen the Kennet and Windrush decline at a steady pace. Rivers that held good stock of roach for example are now almost gone with just the odd shoal found here and there.
The river Thame which held a good head of fish has slowly suffered and has filled in. The width of the river has decreased over the last 4 decades and along with this the general life around the river has changed.
Some species of fish have thrived like Barbel on the Windrush while others like Dace and Roach has suffered but with low levels and obstructions in place the fish can no longer move with complete freedom.
When these rivers run dry they have to be restocked, weed growth must be reintroduced but many animals and birRAB will be lost that rely on an Eco system to keep them alive. The whole Eco system falls down and you are left with dead areas which once were full of life.
The trouble is we tend to only think of ourselves and very few will have any thought on the general impact of low rainfall.
 
I agree, that is why I believe that any national water grid will have to be a political decision. Private water companies will be very reluctant to invest in a network of pipes simply because of the huge cost involved and even then it will probably be a decade away.

Perhaps the expansion of the drier south east of England should be curtailed, even moving jobs and manufacturing to the 'wetter' parts of the country. Water has always been a mainstay of industry that is one of the reasons that the iron industry was so big on the borders of the Brecon Beacons.

It is a possible solution though a long term one. It is what civilisations have had to do over milleniums. Other than that someone will have to stump up the money for the infrustacture.

I certainly know the problems you face with your fish, being a fish keeper myself and knowing how important good water quality is. Even now you must be having sleepless nights in case something happens to lower the oxygen levels in the water.
 
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