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

[someguy1]

The drought-affected areas are the south-east of England and East Anglia.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17340844

[Dragon Rapide]

Spelman from DEFRA's website:

"“It is not just the responsibility of Government, water companies and businesses to act against drought."

Funny, I had mistakenly thought that one of the basic duties of any government and its surrogates was to make sure everyone was supplied with water for all their needs 24 hours a day 365 days a year. We are in the 21st century in a first world country and obliging people for the nth time in my lifetime that their water supply will be restricted.

[phreakf4]

Yes indeed! The government must take action to make it rain, now! Or maybe we need to be more careful in our use of water, rather than assuming that it is an inexhaustible supply which we can carelessly squander. It is a simple fact that the most likely thing to cause the end of civilisation as we know it is already out of control and probably can not be stopped. That thing is overpopulation of the planet. The planet's resources are not unlimited and all the talk of "renewable resources" is a waste of time while the world's population continues to increase. The next major war will not be fought over oil, or finance, it will be fought over water or food supplies.....

[phreakf4]

In addition to my last post, it should be pointed out that the farmer in whose outbuildings the workshop in which I spend quite a lot of time is located has been worried for several months about the lack of rain and the effect it is having on his crops. Ocassional heavy rain, such as we had a week or so ago, is of little use to farmers, it mostly runs off into drains and streams and leaves insufficient for the crops. Prolonged, steady "normal" rain for several weeks would be needed to restore confidence in this year's crop. Last year's was not much better. There is little that either the government or the water companies can do about that.

[Dragon Rapide]

I fear you have missed the thrust of my comment. As a NATION we have plenty of water. It's simply that we have failed for the last 50 years to establish any sort of system for spreading the water available in the country to the country. As for your dramatic doomesday scenario, well, many things are likely cause the end of civilisation as we know it and many of those we can do nothing to prevent.

[ArabJazzie]

And when Scotland becomes independent........

Something should have been done years ago, especially when you see we had 120% of our average rainfall over the winter! But then its really no surprise that the areas affected first are the places where most of the UK population lives!
Arabest,
Geoff.

[SuffolkBlue]

! But then its really no surprise that the areas affected first are the places where most of the UK population lives!
Arabest,
Geoff.

I wouldn't exactly call East Anglia a densely populated area!!

[Dragon Rapide]

Your last point - yes, generally true although East Anglia has low population density and climatically low rainfall. It isn't as though the rainfall averages haven't been known for decades!!

[neilos]

Thankfully, Cambridge hasn't enforced a ban yet.

Let the daily wash of the car continue....

[Abingdonman]

The decline of major airshows is a major factor of the drought...but you know what ,I'm not worried by a hosepipe ban....I'll use a bucket instead!

[mais01]

Of course there is a water shortage, we are an island.

[sjt]

Of course there is a water shortage, we are an island.

If you want to pump seawater onto your garden your welcome to! Just don't put any on my fields!

We started working some land down for sugar beet today in South Lincolnshire....damp enough on top but deep down there is very little moisture.

What's more concerning for me is that all this news about drought and potatoes and barley costing more but I don't seem to be receiving anymore money for my crops! hmmm!

[Eelmoor]

Jetwashed the drive and washed three cars with the hose pipe today, thought I'd help the water people out by putting all that water back into the system for them, done my bit for the drought. what are you lot doing !!!!

[Eelmoor]

Just had a thought, with a hosepipe ban imminent, whats going to happen to all these car wash places that seemed to have opened up on every street corner over the ;ast couple of years !!

[Dragon Rapide]

They recycle the same water - so get in early!!

[Eelmoor]

Cant see how they will recycle much as most comes out of a jetwash straight onto car then disappears down the nearest drain !

[Dragon Rapide]

Cant see how they will recycle much as most comes out of a jetwash straight onto car then disappears down the nearest drain !

Didn't you see the ?Perhaps I should have included a as well............

[RRconway]

Of course there is a water shortage, we are an island.

If you want to pump seawater onto your garden your welcome to! Just don't put any on my fields!

We started working some land down for sugar beet today in South Lincolnshire....damp enough on top but deep down there is very little moisture.

What's more concerning for me is that all this news about drought and potatoes and barley costing more but I don't seem to be receiving anymore money for my crops! hmmm!

I do feel for the Farmers in this country you are forever coming up against obstacles to your lively hood.

Perhaps this government (or any other one for that matter), instead of wasting all the money getting people from Lindon to Birmingham 20 minutes quicker, should consider spending the money putting in nationwide infrastructure to move water around to where it is needed, that was one of the ideas behind the canal system wasn't it?

I for one resent being told not to use a hosepipe when you see the amount that is list in water leaks each year with very little action being taken.
For the record I rarely use a hosepipe anyway, as an allotment owner (my wife's actually but I help out) well it is just under the approach for RAF Northolt.... Result anyway I digress, as an allotment owner where hosepipes are completely banned we are finding lots if ways of doing without one.

Hope it does not affect you too much sjt.
Cheers,
Jeff.

[Dragon Rapide]

"Perhaps this government (or any other one for that matter), instead of wasting all the money getting people from Lindon to Birmingham 20 minutes quicker, should consider spending the money putting in nationwide infrastructure to move water around to where it is needed, that was one of the ideas behind the canal system wasn't it?"

What an excellent suggestion!!

[jakdaw]

My impression was that canals were for transport not moving water round, most of the time canals only flow when locks are being used. Also why move water to population, move population to water, seriously why build new houses somewhere where the infastructure is not there to support it.

[RRconway]

My impression was that canals were for transport not moving water round, most of the time canals only flow when locks are being used. Also why move water to population, move population to water, seriously why build new houses somewhere where the infastructure is not there to support it.

It wasn't the canals primary function but it was a consideration, and it is certainly possible as any fisherman or boater will tell you.
As far as moving population to where the water is, first you need to know where the water will be, and will that regularly, for example one problem we experience during drought conditions is reservoirs falling and almost drying up completely, so if you build houses near to sources of that type, and that happens, you're no better off, and how much housing can be built around any one source?
In large areas of
Population you can't just move everyone, for example you couldnt move Lindon up to the Lake District!!!!
We currently pump oil around the country in vast pipelines, so why not water?
For example Heathrow is supplied from Buncefield uk Hertfordshire which in turn gets it supply from various coastal terminals. This may have changed slightly after the fire at Buncefield but I believe it's still the case.

Cheers,
Jeff.

[Dragon Rapide]

My impression was that canals were for transport not moving water round, most of the time canals only flow when locks are being used. Also why move water to population, move population to water, seriously why build new houses somewhere where the infastructure is not there to support it.

So the logical conclusion of that proposal would be that the majority of the 55 million people would live from South Wales up the western side of the country to the far north of Scotland!! Mmmm - perhaps not.....

[sjt]

I do feel for the Farmers in this country you are forever coming up against obstacles to your lively hood.

Perhaps this government (or any other one for that matter), instead of wasting all the money getting people from Lindon to Birmingham 20 minutes quicker, should consider spending the money putting in nationwide infrastructure to move water around to where it is needed, that was one of the ideas behind the canal system wasn't it?

I for one resent being told not to use a hosepipe when you see the amount that is list in water leaks each year with very little action being taken.
For the record I rarely use a hosepipe anyway, as an allotment owner (my wife's actually but I help out) well it is just under the approach for RAF Northolt.... Result anyway I digress, as an allotment owner where hosepipes are completely banned we are finding lots if ways of doing without one.

Hope it does not affect you too much sjt.
Cheers,
Jeff.

Thanks for the kind words Jeff. What I find frustrating is that in years of low rainfall and in years of high rainfall those are the years we get great prices! Get a year with perfect growing conditions and a bumper crop we get sod all!

We have kept rainfall measurements on the farm since January 1993 so next time week when I am in the office I'll have a look at how much things have changed

[stratocaster]

Yes indeed! The government must take action to make it rain, now! Or maybe we need to be more careful in our use of water, rather than assuming that it is an inexhaustible supply which we can carelessly squander. It is a simple fact that the most likely thing to cause the end of civilisation as we know it is already out of control and probably can not be stopped. That thing is overpopulation of the planet. The planet's resources are not unlimited and all the talk of "renewable resources" is a waste of time while the world's population continues to increase. The next major war will not be fought over oil, or finance, it will be fought over water or food supplies.....

You have a valid point about overpopulation,,but the UK was open to abuse when Mr Blair invited Tom,Dick and Harry in without researching impact etc on environment et al,that puts a strain on resources,especially the utilities however we know that greedy water companies don't renew pipework etc but would rather keep their shareholders happy with juicy profits,so with antiquated pipework still in use it is leaking much into the towns and cities foundations etc.Much of this could have been prevented during pre-privatisation if governments and local authorities worked together and had a programme to replace ageing pipes etc.

[Dragon Rapide]

Whomever is blamed is irrelevant. The problem is with us now and steps have to be taken NOW to prevent a reoccurrence. No one can predict whether or not we will have more rain than we need in 4 years time. But our climate is fickle and with minimum financial resources perhaps we ought to be redirecting our thoughts from arguably needless new railways to the North to the feasibility of redistributing water from the North and/or constructing desalination plants at strategic points along the South coast.