Saving water, should we be more pro-active?

petra

nanna8
We can have tanks dug in the garden to take grey water but it’s financially prohibitive to the vast majority of the population.
This won’t happen in our life time but I believe in the way off future all new properties built will encompass tanks in the garden, solar panels on every roof.
Technology has developed windows and bricks that generate electricity.
There are super yachts where the hull has been constructed out of materials that generate electricity.
But then we have the on going problem of thieving energy companies who will do their best to stop innovation. as it impedes on their profits.

A friend had this done in Marne la Vallee and it was paid through a government scheme.

I live in a block of flats. It was new and soon after we moved in everyone agreed to have a meter fixed onto the incoming water flow. It is possible to meter hot and cold water on shared supplies.
I also collect the cold water which runs before the hot arrives to water my pot plants.
33c+ today Monday 37+, schools closing in the afternoons this week,

Things I do to save water:

After a bath, I don't run the water away. I have a large jug, which I fill from the bath, and flush the lav with the bathwater.
I also fill the watering can and use the water from the bath for plants. A bit of soap doesn't hurt them.
I dry my laundry using a dehumidifier and use the water produced for plants.
I wash up in the sink once a day only.

nanna8
We can have tanks dug in the garden to take grey water but it’s financially prohibitive to the vast majority of the population.
This won’t happen in our life time but I believe in the way off future all new properties built will encompass tanks in the garden, solar panels on every roof.
Technology has developed windows and bricks that generate electricity.
There are super yachts where the hull has been constructed out of materials that generate electricity.
But then we have the on going problem of thieving energy companies who will do their best to stop innovation. as it impedes on their profits.

We don’t have tanks nanna we have water butts. Not as big.
I use them to water our garden even when it’s raining. I reckon that the plants can have a real soaking whilst the butts are being refilled. I am definitely not totally neurotic though, I only do that when we have had a dry spell.

Especially after having spent many years in desert climates, I do try to be careful with water, so do get annoyed with dh for letting the tap run full blast while he’s brushing his teeth!

After the recent weeks on end with no rain, our water butts were completely empty for the first time ever. Now pretty full again, but I never take rain for granted.

Nobody else with South-East water? You don't take water for granted if you live in Kent! They have had to pay a lot of money in compensation. £1.2 million in Tunbridge Wells for the 2025 outages.

The Tory privatisation of water as a monopoly was a blank cheque for theit City friends and we customers should never vote Tory again.

Are you allowed to have tanks ? We put some in during one of our droughts and use that for the garden. We had a house where there was no town water at all once and everything relied on our tank. You were supposed to boil the water before drinking it but we didn’t bother and we’re still here!

I see what you mean petra, but for many people, what they actually pay out for stuff does often mean they think about it more.

Think of how folk are more conscious of turning off lights, not leaving equipment on standby, using appliances when electricity is cheaper, to name a few.

Yes, there will always be those who don’t give a fig for any of it though.

Calendargirl

Water meters for all should be the norm.

Sad to say but if money is not an issue meter or no meter won’t make a scrap of difference.
If your attitude towards our most important precious asset is to just waste it you can’t/ change that attitude. That is until your water goes off.
People with that attitude would probably say we'll just go and buy some. completely forgetting tgat thousands of others will be trying to buy it.
And then what happens when there’s no water to fill those bottles 🤷‍♀️

Calendargirl

MayBee70

I've been careful with water ever since I switched to a meter but I currently have yet another blocked sewage pipe and I wonder if I'm not using enough. to flush everything through. It doesn't help that I'm the end house in a row of four and the house next door is empty.

My DH thinks that not flushing the loo each time is not good, leading to a build up of toilet paper.

I know what he means, but then I argue that having a shower which uses the same pipes means a good gush of water going through.

If you have a build up of ‘waste’ in your drains, ‘rodding’ it all through is not the most pleasant task!

🚽🧻

Good old Severn Trent have come out to sort it pretty quickly. My hot water tap in the bathroom has been disconnected so I have to wash my hands using a bucket in the bathroom has been which I then use to flush the toilet. I put myself on the vulnerable person register last time it happened so they guarantee to come out within 24 hours and someone in the office phones up to check that I’m ok.

I should have checked before I posted but the plans to extend expand the reservoir system have now been scrapped after public opposition and a re-evaluation of the environmental impact on this much loved part of the National Park.

I have a water meter here and three years ago I had a new central heating combination boiler fitted. Like many such boilers, there can be a considerable lag before the hot water comes through to some of the taps. I can run off a gallon of cold before I get any hot to my kitchen tap so I save that water and use it either in the garden or to flush the downstairs toilet. I might do this two or three times a day and I can’t bear the thought of it going straight down the drain.

I read somewhere recently that there are plans being discussed to extend the Ladybower and Derwent reservoirs in the Peak District which will involve flooding vast tracts of extra land. I am very sad about this because of the loss of the beautiful and sensitive habitat that it will involve - it is one of my favourite places in all the world - but mindful that if the extra water is needed, there is little choice but to do that or to build new ones.

MayBee70

I've been careful with water ever since I switched to a meter but I currently have yet another blocked sewage pipe and I wonder if I'm not using enough. to flush everything through. It doesn't help that I'm the end house in a row of four and the house next door is empty.

My DH thinks that not flushing the loo each time is not good, leading to a build up of toilet paper.

I know what he means, but then I argue that having a shower which uses the same pipes means a good gush of water going through.

If you have a build up of ‘waste’ in your drains, ‘rodding’ it all through is not the most pleasant task!

🚽🧻

We had a water meter fitted a few years back; our monthly bill went from £89 to £33. We have a large garden and a pond. Six large water butts. Two just for pond top up. Any washing up water etc goes on the hydrangeas or the veg garden. We both shower every day…but just in -wash -. out. We just try to be conscious of the water we use.

The greedy private water companies need to be more pro-active towards the requirements of the rank and file customer and less pro-active when it comes to raking in extortionate revenues to keep shareholders happy.

Or I can see the days when we all gathered around the village well, with our buckets, returning......

Who is we?
My family grew up with water shortages. 4hours of water every 4 days was the worst. We don’t waste a drop.
My dad was a civil engineer and his specialist subject was water.

I seem to think that we do usually get warnings of water shortages but I haven’t heard much this year. Perhaps it’s time for the powers that be to remind us that water is precious. I remember being amazed that in the U.K. you could drink water out of a tap!
The water companies have made a mess but we could do better.
Except me of course😂

I've been careful with water ever since I switched to a meter but I currently have yet another blocked sewage pipe and I wonder if I'm not using enough. to flush everything through. It doesn't help that I'm the end house in a row of four and the house next door is empty.

I'm pleased for your friend Calendargirl. Different water authorities have different ways of reaching their 'assessed charge'. Mine went simply on the number of bedrooms, not the size of the property, size of surrounding gardens, number of residents etc just a 'sledgehammer' how many bedrooms. Then they charged the 'average water bill' of a property with the same number of bedrooms ignoring the number of occupants, make it make sense. That's why I fought and fought for my meter.

Rosie

A friend of mine is on a shared supply. After I suggested she tried to get hers assessed to lower her payment, she did so, and now pays about £200 a year less.

She was delighted.

Water is a precious commodity which sadly we in the west have taken for granted for too long.
Water meters and education by whatever means would help from the consumer side.
Efficiency, competence, less overpaid fat cats in offices and more boots on the ground would help on the other side.
Also research in how to better conserve. My son worked on a project in Australia where water runoff from highway gullies was fed back to reservoirs.

Calendargirl

Water meters for all should be the norm.

If you had witnessed the fight I had to get a water meter........ my monthly payments are much less than half what the 'assessed charge' water rate was.

Of course anyone on a shared supply can't be metered. I'm not sure how many households that covers but I know of houses only 30 or so years old to which this applies.

Water meters for all should be the norm.

teabagwoman

I was brought up to save water as my dsf was a distribution engineer for a water board. He was worried about supply back in the 60s. Water should never have been privatised.

As much as I could quite easily line the water company bosses against a wall and ( you know the rest)
But as obscene/ corrupt that they have been the coming water shortages arnt all down to these thieving *&£@#@#£#.
Our biggest problem is lack of reservoirs
We havnt built any new ones for 30 years.
In 30 years the uk population has grown from 58.2 mil. To 69.9- 70.2 mil.

www.google.com/search?q=The+uk+is+in+danger+of+not+having+enough+fresh+water&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:7b27c8ee,vid:ykj5rHnuYI4,st:0.