Just saw a news item on the TV and it looks like the South of England will suffer a real drought this year ( the worst for 30 odd years) and there will more than likely be stand pipes for collecting water from.....NO CAR WASHING OR VISITS TO THE CAR WASH........no watering gardens no filling ornimental pools or swimming pools.........basically drinking and washing only........just wondered what everyone else will do........ I have started by getting a few rain water barrels sourced to use the water from the drainpipe to fill them.........at least it can be used to flush the loo.

THE OTHER THING IS the police can issue you with a ticket if they feel your number plate is unreadable

Hallelujah for good old Scottish Rain :orb_not_w

What you need is a long pipe from here. Its been raining all day today and most of yesterday!!

Will I cope?

No.

I like a nice hot shower twice a day (no jokes please).

I'll have to nick water from work during the day as I work in Bedfordshire most of the time.

I am tempted to store some water in the garden from my downpipes IF it ever rains but it's probably too late now.

Sit back and wait, we'll have the wettest summer in history now!

The general attitude of the whole thing round here is likened to an ostrich and lots of sand, people are convinced it just won't happen.

I'll only get to wash my car when I visit Manchester for work.

Scary. I heard the standpipe thing today as well, so I have naturally immediately rushed out and bought one

We'll be OK - we'll just drink Evian water and bathe in milk. How the other half live eh?

It could well bring it home to us if we have to rely on essentials dropped from packages by helicopters. And if the Marmite crowd fill up the helicopter first, I will not be happy.

There are so many things we take for granted. Ok Ok, bread as well to spread the Marmite on.

Regards

Mo

They might have more water if they stop putting it in there beer, no wonder there's a drought!!..................oooppp norf. Proper ale

My car will be fine, work don't seem to care about the hosepipe ban, so I cleaned all the static vans last week. And I can clean my car for free at work Their water and so their fine...

Will be an excellent excuse not to clean the car By the looks of the news yesterday, Hampshire isn't affected by this (yet!) but I can imagine that when it is, we'll be inviting ourselves to stay in Rochdale (hiya Rob :wave23d: ) so that we can live like we're in the 21st century again!

I'm sure it was quoted that the equivalent of 190 litres per person per day were being wasted due to unrepaired leaks in the infrastructure yet the water companies posted £2 billion profits last year! :eek: If we go onto stand pipes, can I cancel my direct debit with Southern Water? :rubchin:

Chris

Chris,

I'm with you, after all you are paying for a service you are not getting. I for one will not pay any water rates if it comes to stand pipes! There is currently a leak in the main road through brentford, bad enough it's left a very large puddle (across the road). How much water is being wasted as I type this...........yet they want people to not moan and pay to use stand pipes!

As for washing the car........still gets washed onces a month thanks too you lovely northerns!

I think the water companies are disgusting.

In southampton they have just built a load of flats on what used to be an underground resevoir opposite a set of university halls. So they sell a resevoir for profit when we are short on water. Nice on guys. Stop creaming the money.

If you read the web site apparantly moving watr from down south would be expensive. You are making 2bn profits, it's time you invested in your legal requirements. Don't forget that shares can go down as well as up, eg it's time for your fat cats and share holders to take a loss for once.

Very angry person bearing in mind what the rates are. (Off to fully wash my car this eve).

Also if you can't wash your car what about the flys on the windscreen. They make it impossible to see properly.

THE OTHER THING IS the police can issue you with a ticket if they feel your number plate is unreadable

Number plates can be easily cleaned with a dry rag though

There is currently a leak under the Tamworth ring road, it was there for a week before they dug up the road. They resurfaced and now it has a permanent puddle over it again.

The quanitity of water from just that one leak over a week must be huge - but think of all the leaks we cant see where the water goes into the ground, or simply evaporates or runs away into streams etc.

I think the water companies are disgusting.

In southampton they have just built a load of flats on what used to be an underground resevoir opposite a set of university halls. So they sell a resevoir for profit when we are short on water. Nice on guys. Stop creaming the money.

If you read the web site apparantly moving watr from down south would be expensive. You are making 2mil profits' date=' it's time you invested in your legal requirements. Don't forget that shares can go down as well as up, eg it's time for your fat cats and share holders to take a loss for once.

Very angry person bearing in mind what the rates are. (Off to fully wash my car this eve).

Also if you can't wash your car what about the flies on the windscreen. They make it impossible to see properly.[/quote']

The underground reservoir is just for storage. The aquifer is to blame not the storage. There has not been enough water to get out of the ground.

The water companies need to start drawing more water from the north. Up here we are full and in Scotland there is too much!! Privatisation has meant that the water areas are working alone and not together like they once were. I am sure this is the root of the problem. You are right that the shareholders demand their divvi. I blame the governments NOT the companies for this

Also if you can't wash your car what about the flys on the windscreen. They make it impossible to see properly.

Slow down !!

I am sure this is the root of the problem. You are right that the shareholders demand their divvi. I blame the governments NOT the companies for this

This is part of the problem, but the fact is that the water companies are wasting the equivalent of 190 litres of water per person per day due to leaks in their infrastructures so the water that we do have (which would be in excess of what a typical person uses each day) is being wasted! They have said it's uneconomical to fix these leaks and put up our water rates to compensate, whilst posting record profits

Chris

My point was keep the resevoir and fill it up from somewhere, eg up north.

This whole country has gone to the dogs by following America.

The government needs to regular water companies more as this is crazy.

There is currently a leak in the main road through brentford, bad enough it's left a very large puddle (across the road). How much water is being wasted as I type this...........yet they want people to not moan and pay to use stand pipes!

Have you rung them to tell them? They can't be expected to know there's a leak in some arbitary road.

If they can build oil pipelines through many countries (including this one) why cant they do the same for water ?

The Water Industry Commissioner (a government appointed lackie accountable to nobody) sets spending budgets, leakage reduction targets and customer charges for all the privatised and public water utilities. The efficiencies achieved by the English utilities are far better than those achieved by Scottish Water (which is still in public ownership).

The reason the government sold off all the water companies was because they knew they had a legacy of ageing infrastructure which would be very expensive to replace, and had to rely on the private sector for the investment to do so. The private sector took on all the risk associated with doing this, and yet they have no control over the water rates, these are set by the WIC. Leakage reduction has been an ongoing process and despite big improvements there is still much to be done.

The profits made by the privatised utilities are nowhere near as large as stated above, and Thames Water for example make most of their profits as a consultant / designer / investor on new infrastructure, which in turn subsidises the water delivered to consumers.

The utility companies want to build new reservoirs, but the planning process and green opposition now renders this virtually impossible, meanwhile Prescott wants to build thousands more homes in the South East.

Yes I'm sure hosepipe bans etc are a pain, but on the other hand, when 40% of the population live in 5% of the country, what do you expect, nobody can tell the rain where to fall.

Have you rung them to tell them? They can't be expected to know there's a leak in some arbitary road.

and why dont they? :P

it's a known bursting point and late last night it was being worked on so atleast they are doing something now.

Trouble is the pipes are aways bursting in that area, every summer there is a puddle without fail.

And yes they do get reported

When I was a kid my dad reported a leak. He rang every 2-3 days and it still took them over 3 weeks to investigate and fix.

I can see it now, the youth of today will have a field day with standpipes. I can see the water running down the street now as they turn them all on whilst walking home from the pub for a laugh.

Plenty of rain on Anglesey and the reservoirs in North wales are all full. We can "sell" you some folks!!!!

Plenty of rain on Anglesey and the reservoirs in North wales are all full. We can "sell" you some folks!!!!

I'm enjoying a glass of welsh water (from my Staffordshire tap) as I write.

Come to the first Yorkshire meet and get your car washed whilst youre here!!

Shamelessely pinched from another forum

Chris

There is currently a leak under the Tamworth ring road' date=' it was there for a week before they dug up the road. They resurfaced and now it has a permanent puddle over it again.

[/quote']

Well, I drove past the leak again yesterday and it seems they've dug up the road and resurfaced it again but the road was dry.

This morning it is leaking again