Impeccable timing!
Mark Evans ● 1496d27 Comments
From next Wednesday.. 24th August.
Jim Lawes ● 1496d
If we need a hosepipe ban, why are they waiting a week before bringing it in? Surely it should be brought in with immediate effect?
Carol Burge ● 1495d
I heard that whilst driving in the downpour. Yes and why wait?
Maggie Dodge ● 1495d
I understood that it took months of rain to fill the reservoirs.
Philippa Bond ● 1495d
It does and we will need a wet winter.
Janice Evans ● 1495d
The grass in the parks already looks a bit greener after that rain but there are so many large trees with hardly any leaves. The horse chestnuts with just a handful of leaves and a very few conkers look very strange. There are sad looking oaks too.We were so lucky that the first shower was gentle and not hard and heavy to start with because when I tipped a bowl of washing up water at the foot of a very sad looking buddleia the previous evening the water just bounced off the dry hard ground and ran towards my feet. If that first shower had not wet the ground I reckon there would have been more flash flooding as too much rainwater tried to hit the drains at the same time.I need to look for another place to put a water butt to slow the flow I think. There are so many different colours and shapes now that they don't all look like dustbins I reckon they could even look good on the front of a town house.
I have an ugly 1000 litre one so hid it behind the garage.
Janice Evans ● 1494d
They are called ibc 1000 litre water butt if you have room for one orable to collect one they are quite chap on eBay.
'Cheap' I should have typed.
Just wondering what the water companies would do if we weren't an island and they couldn't just pump our sewage into the sea. Do their job properly?
Vivienne Cox ● 1494d
If there weren't so many hard surfaces water would have more ground to soak into and if that ground has compost or mulch added it also absorbs a lot more water. We also make it harder for ourselves by paving patios and front gardens.In the past rivers and streams have been straightened which increases the speed that the water travels in them causing problems when there are sudden heavy downpours and high winds. Climate change has increased the severity of storms and incidence of flooding together with all the increased building.https://naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2016/10/13/putting-the-bends-back-into-swindale-beck/That is an older project but many modern projects have a lot of attention paid to the landscaping.https://www.susdrain.org/delivering-suds/retrofitting/why-retrofit/why-change.html
Philippa Bond ● 1494d
Instead of just slating the water companies we should also question the wisdom of selling national companies off. I understand this was due to the need for infrastructure investment and a way to achieve this without the UK Govt paying - or so it was said.How many times has this happened already and how many more times will it happen before we learn?https://www.e3g.org/news/investigation-finds-australian-bank-macquarie-could-be-poised-to-asset-stri/
Philippa Bond ● 1493d
I do question the wisdom of ever selling off the water supply to private companies. But surely the companies that took over should have foreseen that they would need to spend money to maintain the supply lines and manage to deal with the used water, from sewers and drains. They should not be paying shareholders and bonuses to their management if they cannot run their system properly.
Vivienne Cox ● 1493d
There was a programme on Radio 4 this morning - The Briefing Room I think, where they put out some points of view about the water companies, privatisation, investment, leaks etc.
Andrew Jones ● 1493d
Blast I missed that. IMaybe I can find it on Listen again.I know that it is more complicated than it seems at face value. I believe there is/has been a moratorium on paying shareholders at some or all water companies. I don't know about bonuses. How much building has been done on flood plains or with reduced or missing reports on drainage or mitigating landscaping I wonder? How much pressure has been placed on reducing regulations and payments to the water companies for new developments? There's been a disaster with cladding. Sending all our rainwater down the same pipes as sewage doesn't help especially if we are likely to have heavier sudden cloudbursts. We don't need to flush our loos with drinking water either.
You can find the programme on iPlayer at:https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001b45s
Thames water gets its water from the thames and the river lea and from what i can see apart from north london which gets its water in another way the thames and the lea have no issues where water is taken in and the Reservoirs in question from thames water as off today are 72% full in West London and 88% full in Lee Valley. But if the intake has not run dry how is a hose pipe ban needed. Are they thinking that the two river are going to run out of water or am i missing the point for us under thames water in london
Julian Pavey ● 1493d
I thought it had recently been announced that the Thames source was dry - so that the river is now about 5 to 10 miles shorter. This must have an effect eventually - the Thames looks full down here due to the tide.
The sooner the government wakes up and re-nationalises the utilities the better. Nearly all of our water companies are owned by foreign investors, making a fortune and paying these CEOs telephone numbers for the p*sspoor service they provide.
Vanessa Smith ● 1493d
There is a new Environment Act. The Lords wanted an amendment to stop water companies discharging raw sewage into seas and rivers. The Govt voted against it. So worth looking at that again.https://www.nationalworld.com/news/politics/how-did-my-mp-vote-on-sewage-list-of-mps-who-voted-for-and-against-dumping-raw-sewage-into-seas-and-rivers-3433000
"We don't need to flush our loos with drinking water either". I assume you mean mains water? What if you have no choice?
Brian Coyle ● 1492d
The 'source' of the Thames is but one of many hundreds of other tributaries that feed into it. Otherwise it would still only be a few feet wide as it passes through London.
Peter Evans ● 1492d
A bit of history:https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/22/liz-truss-environment-agency-cuts-sewage-water-pollution
Philippa Bond ● 1490d
It takes a lot more than one thunderstorm after a long period of no rain and hot weather to end a hosepipe ban:https://www.thameswater.co.uk/about-us/performance/reservoir-levels-and-rainfall-figures
Philippa Bond ● 1487d
Luckily I stocked up on hosepipes before the ban came into effect.
Chris Blackwell ● 1486d
It’s a good way to get some rain…
Russell Pearson ● 1474d
I usually just wash my car then rain is guaranteed
Maggie Dodge ● 1474d