I just bought a 100L slimline water butt at Asda for £20 including the stand and diverter. I wanted two but this was the last one they had. I'm not sure if they're selling them everywhere but it's a decent deal if you can get one.
Current water prices here are £1.31/m3 for supply and £1.52/m3 for disposal so 28p for the amount of water this butt holds. This means I only have to use the contents 71.43 times for it to pay for itself
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
We have local SUDS systems along our high street, put in about ten years ago, to hold and slow potential flood waters. One was put in at the point where culverted small rivers meet. Last July we had a big storm and the SUDS burst - homes and a primary school were flooded. So much for "planning for climate change in the future". I am pushing them to expand the SUDS so that the overflow has somewhere to go.
As ever, these SUDS systems, as in gardening and public landscapes, need constant maintenance. You can't just put them in and leave them. Upkeep is the unexciting bit - with no ceremony or fanfare. Councils and res groups don't seem to get how much work that can be in perpetuity - with no budgets or workforce to cover cleaning, repair, evaluation etc. Local councils and govt are going to have to take these flood mititgation systems much more seriously - and implement better planning. Esp in flood plains and where rivers meet. "Ooo, let's just culvert the river" is not a solution.
A question about that news report though: They say that SA had a year's worth of rain in 48 hours but it's been suffering extreme drought since 2018 and has been in and out of droughts for decades, so how do they decide what's a year's worth of rain?
We could really do with a drop of rain here at the moment too...
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
That is the question. Extension plans need to be put in place so that expectations can easily be exceeded. A lot of areas are still building in flood plains and ignoring the whole thing.
I may have been wrong about the new water butt. It's only been in about 3 weeks and I've emptied it 5 or 6 times already. I use the water to top up the other tanks and as it's on the main downpipe it fills up rapidly in any decent bit of rain. I wish I'd fitted one there years ago.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
@wild edges last week lidl had an almost identical deal to the asda one you got, if you are still after a second it may be worth a look!
I set two up to collect off the garage, they’ve both filled up and I moved the water from there to two bigger waterbutts that aren’t connected to anything, sounds like we have a similar set up! I think it’s probably about 350 litres in those ones. Annoyingly I need to drain the rest out of the slim waterbutts now as one of them is leaking from the join, will save as much water as I can but I won’t be able to keep it all which is so annoying
I've just ordered a 1.8m galvanised water trough to finally start work on part of my SUDs scheme. I still need a second slimline water butt and to work out a bit of the plumbing but I'm excited to finally get going with this.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
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You need a budget for the silver spray paint
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
That is the question. Extension plans need to be put in place so that expectations can easily be exceeded. A lot of areas are still building in flood plains and ignoring the whole thing.
I set two up to collect off the garage, they’ve both filled up and I moved the water from there to two bigger waterbutts that aren’t connected to anything, sounds like we have a similar set up! I think it’s probably about 350 litres in those ones. Annoyingly I need to drain the rest out of the slim waterbutts now as one of them is leaking from the join, will save as much water as I can but I won’t be able to keep it all which is so annoying
Having looked online to buy a unit I'm astonished at the cost. I have several above ground water butts and these are cheap as chips frankly.
Can anyone offer or any help?