Hosepipe ban Kent & Sussex

[crankedup5]

Couple of weeks without rain and we have Kent & Sussex going into a hosepipe ban. Would expect other regions will follow shortly. Lack of water coupled with dumping sewage into our rivers, privatisation working well?

[untakenname]

Not sure how privatisation has had an impact on the amount of rainfall received?

In parts of Kent it hasn't rained in over a month now and had record low annual rainfall last year so it's no surprise, the water quality in the rivers seems pretty decent judging by the people still swimming in them.

[valiant]

Maybe they shouldn’t have sold off some of their reservoirs?

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/water-firms...

[mikey_b]

The problem is more that they can't treat the water fast enough to meet the demand. The reservoirs are almost completely full, but if everyone opens their taps at the same time, the small treated water reservoirs dotted around on numerous hilltops run dry.

https://www.southernwater.co.uk/water-for-life/res...

[Timothy Bucktu]

There's plenty of rain, but building new reservoirs to service the massive increase in housing is expensive.

That's it.

[djc206]

crankedup5 said:

Couple of weeks without rain and we have Kent & Sussex going into a hosepipe ban. Would expect other regions will follow shortly. Lack of water coupled with dumping sewage into our rivers, privatisation working well?

They’re taking the piss. Groundwater levels last month were high, river levels were good, reservoirs were full. The 3 months up to May saw high rainfall and the previous 12 months have been above average in the region. If they’re imposing a hosepipe ban on the back of that what are they planning on doing if we get a dry year?

[djc206]

mikey_b said:

The problem is more that they can't treat the water fast enough to meet the demand. The reservoirs are almost completely full, but if everyone opens their taps at the same time, the small treated water reservoirs dotted around on numerous hilltops run dry.

https://www.southernwater.co.uk/water-for-life/res...

They probably should have thought about that before now. Privatised water hasn’t really worked very well for us with our hosepipe bans and st filled rivers and beaches.

[Harpoon]

Is it not about time water meters were made compulsory for all properties? Seems crazy that you can consume something that has a cost per unit to provide but pay a fixed priced.

[markbigears]

It rained for the whole of March in Kent.
Funny how they didn’t manage to catch that lot.
I will be doing the usual of totally ignoring any bans, as previous years and once when I received a warning letter, ignored that as well

[mooseracer]

Harpoon said:

Is it not about time water meters were made compulsory for all properties? Seems crazy that you can consume something that has a cost per unit to provide but pay a fixed priced.

Despite not having one in our house, I tend to agree

[mikey_b]

markbigears said:

It rained for the whole of March in Kent.
Funny how they didn’t manage to catch that lot.
I will be doing the usual of totally ignoring any bans, as previous years and once when I received a warning letter, ignored that as well

The reservoirs are full, so they did catch all the rain. This is a different problem.

[crankedup5]

untakenname said:

Not sure how privatisation has had an impact on the amount of rainfall received?

In parts of Kent it hasn't rained in over a month now and had record low annual rainfall last year so it's no surprise, the water quality in the rivers seems pretty decent judging by the people still swimming in them.

You are kidding of course, but if not :

When the privatisation we were informed that additional reservoirs would be built. How many built during the past thirty years = none. This against a background of higher frequency of dry hot summers and an increasing population. Add to that the increasing use of water hungry industry and you might imagine that water companies would identify problems, but no they haven’t.
River quality is dire, heavy pollutions occurring daily, even the water companies are now bending to Government and public critics announcing capital expenditure improving and adding to much needed infrastructure. 10 billion pound programme announced.

[crankedup5]

djc206 said:

crankedup5 said:

Couple of weeks without rain and we have Kent & Sussex going into a hosepipe ban. Would expect other regions will follow shortly. Lack of water coupled with dumping sewage into our rivers, privatisation working well?

They’re taking the piss. Groundwater levels last month were high, river levels were good, reservoirs were full. The 3 months up to May saw high rainfall and the previous 12 months have been above average in the region. If they’re imposing a hosepipe ban on the back of that what are they planning on doing if we get a dry year?

Taking the piss you say and tipping it into our rivers.

[Rufus Stone]

crankedup5 said:

Couple of weeks without rain and we have Kent & Sussex going into a hosepipe ban. Would expect other regions will follow shortly. Lack of water coupled with dumping sewage into our rivers, privatisation working well?

Poor you.

All I got was an email from Anglian Water with tips on how to keep cool in this hot spell. All of which appears to use more of their metered product.

[crankedup5]

djc206 said:

mikey_b said:

The problem is more that they can't treat the water fast enough to meet the demand. The reservoirs are almost completely full, but if everyone opens their taps at the same time, the small treated water reservoirs dotted around on numerous hilltops run dry.

https://www.southernwater.co.uk/water-for-life/res...

They probably should have thought about that before now. Privatised water hasn’t really worked very well for us with our hosepipe bans and st filled rivers and beaches.

I’m old enough to remember the drought of 1976, we were promised an expansion of storage capacity

[J210]

Who would have thought a higher population and more houses and not building any reservoirs would be an issue.

[crankedup5]

Rufus Stone said:

crankedup5 said:

Couple of weeks without rain and we have Kent & Sussex going into a hosepipe ban. Would expect other regions will follow shortly. Lack of water coupled with dumping sewage into our rivers, privatisation working well?

Poor you.

All I got was an email from Anglian Water with tips on how to keep cool in this hot spell. All of which appears to use more of their metered product.

I’m in the same water region as yourself.

[Wills2]

untakenname said:

Not sure how privatisation has had an impact on the amount of rainfall received?

By not building a more resilient infrastructure, spending the bare minimum based upon "it always rains" and maxing the return for shareholders that's how.

Water should not be run for profit, their strategy of "use less and pay more for it whilst we allow billions of litres to piss away every day and fail to build a single new reservoir" isn't going to work.

[Dog Star]

Total piss take. These companies have had years and years - couple of decades? - of this going on and know what’ll happen. No investment, new reservoirs, fix leaks etc yet it’s cream off billions in profits, stick a hosepipe ban on and pump people’s st into our seas and watercourses. Disgrace.

[Funk]

untakenname said:

Not sure how privatisation has had an impact on the amount of rainfall received?

In parts of Kent it hasn't rained in over a month now and had record low annual rainfall last year so it's no surprise, the water quality in the rivers seems pretty decent judging by the people still swimming in them.

They could start by not pissing so much of it away and fixing infrastructure - Southern Water deliver around 600m litres of water a day but lose nearly 100m in leaks per day whilst doing so.