Hosepipe ban

"Southern Water, South East Water, Thames Water, Anglian Water, Sutton and East Surrey, Veolia Central and Veolia South East are to enforce restrictions.Five of the companies said they will impose bans from 5 April."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ea...announced-for-8-million-as-drought-bites.html

"Hosepipe ban to be imposed in drought-hit parts of UK

Southern Water, South East Water, Thames Water, Anglian Water, Sutton and East Surrey, Veolia Central and Veolia South East are to enforce restrictions.
Five of the companies said they will impose bans from 5 April."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17340844

 

One Raindance coming up

http://ww.smashits.com/milee-holi-rain-dance-rocks/event-715-picture-5.html

 

I was just reading that - going to be a right royal PITA keeping things watered ; I've got three waterbutts out the back but I can empty them all in a couple of weeks when everythings growing.

I feel some sneaky refilling-from-the-tap under cover of darkness coming on..

 

I've read that Northumbrian Water have again been in discussion with Yorkshire water to supply water by ROAD.
Should be cost-effective - shouldn't it?

 

That doesn't appear to differentiate between using a hose pipe and using a water can. Hope they don't ban watering veg using a can, making me pay drought prices for stuff from the shops, or trucked from Spain.

We're going to need to take an awful lot of baths every day to keep our veg watered with bathwater.

 

Rain dancing <--

 

Will this apply to allotment holders, and those of us that keep chickens ducks ect? in the back of my brain (and its a very small one) I always thought these were exempt form bans

 

Doubt they will be exempt, I doubt anything will be. Don't suppose there will be any rebates for failure-to-deliver-the-expected-service either ...

Wish I had been able to "store" the water from the 6" main that runs under my garden and which burst last week. Maybe it can burst "again" when things look parched in a few months time? !!

I'm mulling over two things:

1. Replace cesspit with a digester that will output garden-ready quality water. We use almost exactly twice as much [metered] water in Summer as in Winter, so if I can "reuse" all the household water onto the garden I should be "sorted"

2. Get a borehole. Economics of that are dreadful, but not if I can't keep my plants alive.

No idea why Anglia Water are imposing a hosepipe ban, I thought all our water came from boreholes, rather than rivers & reservoirs, and if that's the case then there is unlikely to be any issue - groundwater evens out over many years.

 

All sorts of regulations about bore holes Kristen. As you say, horrendously expensive to start with.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/science-environment-17338595

snip:
A number of water companies in the southern half of England, covering about 20 million people, are understood to have contingency plans in place that could lead to bans on non-essential uses, perhaps before the end of March.
These could include bans on car-washing, watering gardens and filling swimming pools

does that mean that you may even be banned from watering your gardens with a watering can? ....

and I don't know how that relates to using stored rainwater from your water butts?

 

Apparently the kind beings at your local water company have said it is ok for us to water gardens/wash cars with a watering can or similar

It does make me angry, if companies undertake to own water supply rights then surely it is not too much to expect that they plan ahead for possible water shortages? Why aren't they held accountable by the regulator?
Anglian Water where I live have a poor reputation for wasting water due to ongoing leakages in the system. I don't want to get all heavy and political about it on our friendly gardening forum, but AW is actually owned by a consortium of Canadian/Australian and 'other' companies most of which seem to be mostly venture capitalist and investment interests. Well, it does make you wonder if they are actually interested in supplying customers with an essential of life, water, or just making profits Veolia, one of the other major regional water companies is actually French owned.

Grrrrr. I will shuddup now and go and have a glass of vino.

 

Depending on the area you're in you can still water anything newly planted including large lawns.

You can do what you like with water you've harvested yourself. There's obviously a few people who fill their water butts under the cover of darkness though.

If anyone does live in an affected area now's a good time to get water in the ground around anything non drought tolerant and get a nice thick layer of mulch on (If you don't harvest rain water obviously).

 

I will still be topping up my fish pond as and when needed,I am pretty sure that is ok though..........livestock

 

Some time in the 90's when we had that hot dry summer. We were driving to York races on the M62 . The big reservoir just as you are getting into Yorkshire was being filled by tankers from the Kielder reservoir in Northumberland . The tankers looked minute , it really was like filling a bath with a teaspoon - with the plug out

 

I think you are right roders.

If the ban comes, that will be it for the summer, only chance of them taking it off this year is if we get summer floods, ie only use for a hose, pumping out your property.

I think we need to drastically rethink how we collect and store water in this country, that is if we want to keep upping the population.