Printable View
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...ought-water-uk
Some of us may remember 1976 and this year is set to be worse
With the impending hose pipe ban for many of us in the U.K. what ideas do people have regarding car washing ( ironically the car wash companies are not affected by the ban), gardening etc.:help:
wash your car at night when no ones watching ;)
well tbh you may have to use a watering can but some car washes are £1 so its not worth the hassle.
Or, ya know, put up with having a dirty car...
I will ignore it and if i get a fine so be it.
If they want to drop my bill by 50% then i would think about complying, but until that point they can eff off.
Isn't it Thames water that looses 25% of water due to leaks etc in their network?
Use a bucket? It's not as easy, but does the job.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blaidd59
Or, as hinted at in the question, the local car-wash company.
Watering can. Or a micro-drip system that nobody can see. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Blaidd59
Or water-butts fed from your roof's drainage, and feed a hosepipe (or micro-drip system) from them.
what's wrong with sticking bottles of water into the floor and letting the condensation collect on the outside?Quote:
Originally Posted by Blaidd59
I live in the lake district, where there will most likely NEVER be a hosepipe ban, but we still do that.
Just use a bucket? Its better for most paints than a pressure washer anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoNz0
Well that's a very responsible attitude.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blitzen
I wouldn't mind someone protesting hard about this, writing to their MPs, complaining even about migration and town planning.
But just to be "well I'll squander the water anyway" is frankly a disgusting attitude.
We have not had, and yes I know some of you will cringe as I write this the correct kind of rain for a significant period of time.
We do not want to go back to the 1976 stand pipes, because sadly I think fewer people know their neighbours and I would worry about the effect on the old and feeble.
I would also be there picketing the golf clubs who under their commercial licenses are allowed to water the greens thou....
So what exactly do the South West Water customers pay for? We pay nearly the most in the SW for water.... now we are told we can use it the way we want, seriously its stupid... even in high density population areas we still pay a bucket load and new changes mean this silly £50 rebate disappears before we see it as they have "increased" costs due to taking over responsibility of pipes to the house (it always was in our case because our house is over 100 years old... we are now paying extra for nothing).
// end of rant
Yes if theres a lack of water its fair enough really, not being funny id rather not be able to wash my motor vehicle than no have drinking water and a nice shower!.
I've never understood the hosepipe ban, what does it actually achieve? You can still fill up a bucket of water a million times...
What about the people with a hosepipe spray gun which not only controls the flow of water but can produce the same flow and spray as a water can?
My mum likes to grow veg in her garden, isn't that seen a a very green thing to do these days? Saving money, cutting down unnecessary transport of food etc...are they going to fine her?
I'm all for saving resources, but applying a hosepipe ban to the public and not applying it to a car wash doesn't make sense to me... If I decide to wash my car at home, I will be using a bucket and a hosepipe, controlled by a spray gun, if I go to a car wash they will also use a hosepipe, bucker of water and a pressure washer...they will probably use more water than I would have used.
Its a good thing I rarely clean my car I guess.
You can, but who does?Quote:
Originally Posted by DeludedGuy
And you might use a spray head (and so would I) but a lot of people don't. They cannot effectively micro-manage to that level of granularity. In general, and in the overall demand on water, the calculation is that usage will drop quite a bit if people use buckets to wash their car (or don't wash it) and cans to water their garden.
As for businesses like car washes, it's about proportionality.
If you can't wash you car or water the garden, using a hose, you either have to use a more water-efficient method, or put up with a dirty car and/or dead plants. If you run a water-dependent business and can't run it, you end up with a bankrupt business, laying off stay and unable to pay the mortgage. It's a bit more drastic.
My bet is that restrictions on business use will, [B]if need be, follow. But we're not quite at that point yet, and hopefully, won't reach it.
Sorry, but how do you know this? Everyone I know and every neighbour down my road who has a hosepipe and washes their car or waters their garden has one, its the sensible thing to do.Quote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
Lets face it, some people are going to use a hosepipe regardless of the ban so I think it were better idea if Thames Water created a campaign offering discounted/free spray guns.
I used the car wash scenario as a perfect example to demonstrate the silly reasoning behind the ban, they are implementing this ban due a water shortage, there should be no grey area, there either is a water shortage and its a serious issue or it isn't.
If you tell people not to wash their car because of water shortages, that also implies not using a car wash as it's still a waste of water - which in turn means you end up with a bankrupt car wash, laying off staff who are then unable to pay the mortgage.
All in all, rather than implementing a hose pipe ban why not make people aware of how to better manage their water usage.
South West Water has unique problems.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hicks12
The population more than doubles at times which often are directly correlated with the exact kind of weather they do not want. I recall one year the Cornish Guardian, mentioned how many people had come for the Run to the Sun. We are talking 15 times the local population of Newquay. Someone regrettably has to pay for that!
I live in a very water rich area, which I've already mentioned, but we're still sent things from our water supplier to help us conserve water.Quote:
Originally Posted by DeludedGuy
We have a "bag of air" in the toilet cystern, which reduces the amount of water used for each flush by about 1L, we also have something which limits the amount of water the shower can use and we were supplied with a free hosepipe head, which also limits water usage.
I don't know if this happens in the south, but it bloody well should!
You're all water wasters ;)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On a side note, there was a woman on the radio yesterday suggesting that we should dig tunnels from Scotland/The Lakes, down to the areas most effected by water shortages, to pipe water through, which doesn't sound like a bad idea, if there's no other alternative, but then...
A Scottish man rang up a short while later, offering his hand to digging the trench, for free, but only if they pay £5/L for the water :P
I was in absolute stitches!
In part, because I regularly see people aroui8nd here using a hose without one, and forming a jet by squeezing the end of a hose. And while they're not using it, it's laying in the road, pouring water straight down the drains. Using a spray head might be sensible, but that doesn't mean everyone will do it.Quote:
Originally Posted by DeludedGuy
The water companies do want people to use water sensibly, which is (in part, at least) what meters are all about, as well as devices to reduce loo cistern capacity, etc.
A large part of the ban is about getting people to think, and to change attitude.
Modern pressure/jet washers don't actually use as much water as you think.
They can be run via a bucket of water rather than being hooked up to an outside tap.
So if you feel the need to keep the car clean, you can still go about it. No different to washing the car entirely by hand, and as it's being fed by bucket nowhere near as bad as a normal hose.
Plus far less of a waste than any hand car wash place, which as a business the bans won't apply to.