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warekiwi
Average Member
United Kingdom
107 Posts |
 Posted - 12 Mar 2012 : 16:39:16
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Lots of stuff in the news today about the upcoming drought situation in this part of the UK!
Quote from the BBC News site-
"Water company figures show that London and the Thames Valley have received below-average rainfall for 18 of the last 23 months.
The amount of water in the River Lee, which runs through Hertfordshire and north east London, is only 24% of its usual level while the Kennet is only 31% of its average level."
I live opposite the Tumbling Bay weir and there is barely a trickle running over that into the original river bed. I guess the next thing we will see will be restrictions on boats using the locks?
From what I read, the main reason nothing has ever been done to correct the North/South water disparity is the fragmentation of the water supply companies who only consider their own regions rather than a broad country-wide view?
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Mel
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
1296 Posts |
Posted - 12 Mar 2012 : 16:41:41
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| apparently the technology has been available for decades to be able to move water around the country via canals but no interest from the water companies. |
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Enoughofthat
Average Member
United Kingdom
109 Posts |
Posted - 12 Mar 2012 : 17:02:54
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This is an example of an unintended consequence of privatisation.
In the water privatisation bill, in order to encourage investment, water companies were allowed to add 10% to the cost of infrastructure projects, as their reward for investing. The cost being recoup through water bills.
The unintended consequence is that water companies are obilged, by their duties to pursue shareholder interest, to prefer multi-billion pound projects to spending a few million more cost effectively. |
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Martin
WoLFer
655 Posts |
Posted - 12 Mar 2012 : 17:10:48
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They are obviously using the wrong average figure. If they used the average rainfall over the past two years as the average figure, then the present rainfall would be about average so we would be all right.  |
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mb1
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
2141 Posts |
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boyboy
Average Member
257 Posts |
Posted - 13 Mar 2012 : 09:17:28
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| went for a walk with my children across the meads the weekend before last. All that can be seen now is just the dried out bed. |
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Warewolf
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
1454 Posts |
Posted - 13 Mar 2012 : 09:33:15
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| Does anyone have the latest figures for % of water lost between the source and households due to poor/old supply infrastructure, it used to be shockingly high? |
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mb1
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
2141 Posts |
Posted - 13 Mar 2012 : 09:49:03
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| According to Ofwat Veolia East have a daily leakage figure of 5.1m litres. This is a lot of water and the figure has remained roughly steady since 2005. It is a very small figure compared to Veolia Central which has leakage figues of around 150m litres per day. |
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kevin phillips bong
WoLFer
970 Posts |
Posted - 13 Mar 2012 : 09:58:21
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Doesn't matter whether private or public but why in the 20th century cannot we 'pipe' water in from Wales and the North??
Where still over building in the south resulting in ever more people using water. So no rain = no water + solution?? - pipe it in NOW. |
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Ross Kemps Shampoo
Average Member
164 Posts |
Posted - 13 Mar 2012 : 10:18:17
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quote:
Originally posted by mb1
According to Ofwat Veolia East have a daily leakage figure of 5.1m litres. This is a lot of water and the figure has remained roughly steady since 2005. It is a very small figure compared to Veolia Central which has leakage figues of around 150m litres per day.
The irony of that is that even those figures were leaked to the press. |
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mb1
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
2141 Posts |
Posted - 13 Mar 2012 : 10:24:29
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| Unfortunately piping water over very long distances is extremely expensive, so probably isn't a solution. The only likely solution is massively more efficient use of water resources and government policies which make it extremely unattractive to develop the south east any further, and massively advantageous to develop the west and north west and Scotland. |
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Simes
Average Member
United Kingdom
121 Posts |
Posted - 13 Mar 2012 : 10:43:54
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While I accept that a hosepipe ban is necessary, I had to laugh at the other ideas for 'saving' water that appeared alongside the story on the BBC News website:
Take shorter showers
Fix dripping taps
Install a water saving device in your toilet
Turn off taps while you brush your teeth
I'm not wasting any of the water from the above - I give it all to Thames Water to be cleaned and supplied to the residents of North London. The only wastage is the water that leaks out of the pipes along the way. |
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mb1
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
2141 Posts |
Posted - 13 Mar 2012 : 10:54:37
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| Actually Simes according to Ofwat people in the south east use an average of 168 litres per day each. In most areas of the country it is less than 150 litres per person per day. That suggests we can achieve significant personal savings. |
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SDArcy
Average Member
United Kingdom
280 Posts |
Posted - 13 Mar 2012 : 11:36:28
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Share baths and showers!
re-use domestic water for your garden
buy a water collecting bucket thingie
gravel or pave over your entire garden
plant cactus
don't flush number 1's - but do flush number 2's
Bath/Shower every other day
Buy more deodorant
Drink more bottled water, canned drinks, beer etc instead of tap water
do not use dish washer - use a bowl in the sink
Cut down on washing machine use
Buy more new clothes instead of washing old ones |
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Simes
Average Member
United Kingdom
121 Posts |
Posted - 13 Mar 2012 : 12:49:21
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mb1 - My original post was intended to be a bit 'tongue in cheek' and maybe not very well made (posting in a hurry!).
The point I was trying to make is that in theory it should not matter how much water goes down the drain in our houses as it should all be recycled back into the system for use by someone else. In an ideal world, if all the used water was collected in this way, it would go round the system for ever and we'd never run out. The problem comes when you start removing or losing water from the supply system - then you rely on rainfall to replace the water taken out. Water is lost from the system by:
a) Not being out back into the drains after use - the hosepipe ban will address this.
b) Leaking out of supply pipes or sewers - we need the water companies to deal with this.
I agree we should all try to use less water to alleviate the strain on the system, but I'm sure the water companies lose far more than we will ever manage to save.
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Edited by - Simes on 13 Mar 2012 12:50:09 |
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mb1
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
2141 Posts |
Posted - 13 Mar 2012 : 13:53:44
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| Sorry Simes, will try to tune in radar for that a bit better. cheers mb1 |
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WickenMan
Average Member
United Kingdom
417 Posts |
Posted - 13 Mar 2012 : 13:55:28
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quote:
Originally posted by SDArcy
Share baths and showers!
Experience has shown that this doesn't work. With two of us in the shower together we spend more time than we would if we added together the time spent showering alone. |
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Dusty
Senior Member
United Kingdom
685 Posts |
Posted - 13 Mar 2012 : 14:25:18
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I wouldn't worry too much about the water leaking from the pipes being wasted. Since most of the water round here comes from groundwater extraction it probably finds its way back in to the water table to be sucked out and used again.
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Dusty
Senior Member
United Kingdom
685 Posts |
Posted - 13 Mar 2012 : 14:35:41
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Being fed up with carrying watering-cans full of bath water along the landing and down the stairs to use to water the garden I constructed a network of 40mm waste pipes with lots of holes drilled in about six inches under the garden and connected it to the bath waste. Not a drop of bath water was wasted, everything went to water the garden and then back to the water table and without any effort on my part.
Time comes to build extension. Architect comes to survey house and asks 'What's that pipe?'. I explain my water recycling system and he warns me not to let the Council Building Inspector see it as it was totally contrary to the Building Regulations with regard to disposal of 'grey water'. Bath water now goes down the drain.
It appears that if we need to save the amount of water that we will have to in the future it will require a little bit of imagination on the part of civil servants who write the rules as well as the efforts of the general public.
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Topic |
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Water shortage!
