Saving water, should we be more pro-active?

It would be constructively useful if the privatised water companies used the money they extract from consumers to build more reservoirs and repair the broken down infrastructure

This. Yes it's fine for individuals to save water, but I bet the amount they save doesn't come close to the wastage from leaking underground water pipes that don't seem to get fixed.

I think when climate change starts to really bite and affect us, we might see more activity from the water companies.

People are reducing their water usage and as a result the water companies are having more problems with blockages. This is what DD was told when she had to get the water company out within days of moving into her current home - less water and pouring more oil and fat down the drain.

While water company executives are very well paid. The real curse are the sovereign wealth funds and venture capitalists who buy up all the share in these companies with the express purpose of wracking them for every penny they can, and having rung them dry and loaded them with debt they then dispose of them. It is certainly is what has happened to Thames Water. often the debt load is what the Venture fund borrowed inorder to buy the company in the first place.

When Norway set up the first Sovereign wealth fund to stop its sudden riches from oil destabilising the economy, money they now use to pay for good pensions and for the health service, This was a good move, but now every country in the world has one. The Qatari Wealth fund bought Thames Water then a big Australian asset stripping company bought a share, then a Canadian Pension fund. All bought in for what they could strip out.

I think something has to be done about this type of investment, but at the moment I do not know how it can be done that will not put limits on industrial investment from other sources. To begin with limits on loading the debt used to buy a company should not be transferred to the bought companies accounts.

We have water meters but the standing costs for the service are far,far higher here than the amount of water we use. Damn these private companies, they just want our money. I know people say that public ownership is bad but at least the profit isn’t in the hands of rich people who don’t care about us.

Calendargirl
Water meters for all should be the norm.

WithNobsOnIt
They should be. But they are not unfortunately.

And if they were obligatory, the cost for those already on water meters would have to rise astronomically to meet the loss in payments. When we had our water meter installed our monthly payment dropped by over £50 pm. We had our teenage DGC living with us at the time, but even allowing for that, it was a saving.

I worked for a water company and they had leaks that they knew about for YEARS and hadn't been fixed. They had 'accidental' discharges of raw sewage on average once a day. No reservoirs have been built since the 90s.

The CEO was on £20k a DAY.

When they stop all of the above, I'll limit the water I use.

Calendargirl

Water meters for all should be the norm.

They should be. But they are not unfortunately.

25Avalon

The stale water in the dog’s bowl has kept my hanging basket looking good.

I empty the stale water from the dog’s bowls onto our garden pots, then rinse and refill her bowls using the cold water that runs before the hot comes through-I collect it in jugs in the kitchen and bathroom.
Husband thought I was mad until I showed him how much cold water would be wasted.

Yes, we need to learn to save water. Like many others I save all used water that has no detergent in it from kitchen usage to water the garden, or wash floors in, take short showers, turning the water off while soaping myself or shampooing.

Private swimming pools in gardens should be taxed heavily or made illegal. Hosepipe bans enforced for watering gardens or washing cars in hot weather.

We are officially in drought here, so I am becoming more conscious.

Since putting in a combi-boiler (I would go back if I could afford to), it takes 2.5 litres of water before I get anything like even tepid in my bathroom sink, so I have 2 jugs and use the cold water to water my garden.

I have a washing up bowl now in my sink which gets emptied out into the garden.

Not sure I will keep this up, but for now, I am trying to do my bit.

Sadly my water authority has plans for a reservoir, but they are planning to abstract from the Nene to service Cambridge even though the Cam, the Ouse and the Ivel further South flood regularly, and this is likely to adversely affect Rutland Water

tanith

I try to limit shower time and don’t flush every toilet visit and am careful about running taps but now I have veg and pots to water daily it’s much harder. I used to have a water butt but there really isn’t a place for one in this house.

I have two but they are now empty because no rain for nearly two months.

Crumbly159

It would be constructively useful if the privatised water companies used the money they extract from consumers to build more reservoirs and repair the broken down infrastructure.

But, for reasons I can't work out, the shareholders are Gods. They have priority.

They probably have swimming pools too.

Well said… 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Apparently, a dishwasher uses less water for a full load than washing the same amount of dishes, pans, cutlery, glasses by hand and rinsing them so I shall continue to use the dishwasher.
There are three of us and we don't always eat the same meals at the same time so filling the dishwasher is more economical for us. Everyone's circumstances are different, though.

It would be constructively useful if the privatised water companies used the money they extract from consumers to build more reservoirs and repair the broken down infrastructure.

But, for reasons I can't work out, the shareholders are Gods. They have priority.

They probably have swimming pools too.

The stale water in the dog’s bowl has kept my hanging basket looking good.

I have a washing up bowl permanently in the sink, all the rinse and washing up water from fruit, vegs and pots etc gets collected and when half full goes into one of my large watering cans which all ends up on the few plants I've decided I want to keep. The advice above of saving shower water by blocking the drain is a good one

I’m following the ‘If it’s yellow’ rule.
Shorter showers
Must follow one poster who saves the cold water from the hot water tap

Absolutely OP, bath with a friend and drink more chilled white wine.

We don’t have a water meter but I am always careful.
I’ve been driving past a drain all week that is pouring out gallons of water (seems to be going underground) though.
It would be good if these water companies set a good example to us & came out & fixed it!

Interestingly if you are on the priority register a hosepipe ban does not apply to you. I do think some people aren’t as careful as they could be because of the amount of money the fat cat bosses award themselves and the number of leaks from poorly maintained pipes. We had a reported leak last week. The water repair people came last Monday, did nothing and are coming tomorrow having left the leak although not major for another week.

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.

I was having a bit of trouble with the shower drain running slowly, and a friend had to get hers unblocked recently. She was told that because she just had showers, not baths, and lived alone, there wasn't enough water going through to clear the blockage properly. Since then, I block the shower drain with a shampoo bottle which just covers it neatly, and then when I've had my shower, all the water goes through at once. The water around my feet isn't a problem, and the drain now runs more enthusiastically.

That might be worth a try, MayBee70

we don't get water bills in scotland but i still try to save water when i can, over the last week we have had a lot of rain, i think england and wales could have done with some of it as the news is telling us that there is a drought down in that part of the country.

Having lived abroad and travelled a great deal, I have always been careful about using water, especially drinking water. It drives me wild to see that useful lessons are not learned and ignored. In Portugal ,when I lived there many years ago,we had a switch , so that "grey" water could be sent into the water butt, rather than down the drain.. from shower or sink. An easy way to save water, yet houses are built here with no thought about such things.

I live alone, and always shower and collect washing up for once a day, rather than using a lot of water to wash up small amounts. Dont use a dishwasher. But part of it is getting british people to think about saving water. I arrived back from living in Syria and was amazed to see good drinking water being allowed to run down the drains as someone washed their car . The combination of more use of such things as dishwashers , and less water available, needs to percolate through our minds, as many have grown up with no water problems. I am old enough to remember the drought in the 1970s, and I think it was asking everyone to save water. Dirty cars were a good sign (windows and registration excepted) and it was a sense of everyone working for the same goal. Now the various problems with private ownership and not enough reservoirs etc ., needs to be seen as a separate thing, but however annoyed we are at various water boards , must not be used as an excuse to ignore the efforts we can all make. If we all make our own efforts to save water it will all add up, and we will know that we have done our best.

faringdon59 I meant to add I agree there should be more publicity about saving water and how to go about it.

nanna interesting what you say about using water tanks. If droughts due to climate change are the future in the Uk then the government needs to look at how drier countries are coping and adapt quickly. Rainwater harvesting and storage is expensive but not impossible . Maybe, just as the top energy companies have funded government schemes for solar panel and air source heat pump installations, there will be similar schemes funding harvesting and storage of rain water for farmland and to prevent wild fires. Hopefully short term weather memory will be replaced by proactive long term plans on how to cope in the years ahead.
It’s encouraging to read how people are doing what they can to reduce water use.

Well....I can only put the rude comment that was put on here down to being a side effect of the extreme temperatures.