The water companies SHOULDN'T be issuing hosepipe bans this year even if it doesn't rain until autumn, given how much rainfall there was over last winter.
Unless they've been wasting it by letting it leak all over the roads of course ....
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
It does seem bonkers that our entire water supply has to be purified to drinking quality, when most of it is used for flushing toilets. In my house we have a motto: "If it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down." Not good if you have hard water, because the toilet gets encrusted with limescale, but fine here in North Wales.
I've seen a system which I believe is catching on in Scandinavia, where you have a washbasin mounted on top of the toilet cistern. When you've finished washing your hands, you pull the plug, the water empties into the cistern, and you flush the toilet.
In the 1970's, I stayed in a house in the outskirts of Sarajevo. It was a modern house but had no water supply. They bought bottled water for drinking and cooking, bathed in the river which flowed past the bottom of the garden, and carried water from the river for washing. Instead of using the handbasin in the bathroom, they washed in a bowl of water on a plank across the bath. This water was then used for flushing. I don't know what the arrangement was for waste water, I think I prefer not to know.
Maybe we should just accept that Thatcher's asset stripping of the country, or privitisation as her chums called it hasn't worked? The utility companies are all morphing back together, the promised price competition hasn't happened, the railways get more taxpayers' money than ever before and the price of water has risen exponentially and domestic consumers have no choice from whom they buy it.
I understand that London runs on mostly Victorian pipes, but it is nuts to lose so much. There are three places near me, on hills that bust every two months and take three weeks to fix. There are also springs appearing all the time in odd places as we are placed between layers of certain exposed strata that make us prone to it. But is galling to see water rushing down the hills for so much of the year and then be slapped by high bills and a hose pipe ban.
I guess siphons will come into their own, for running hose pipes from bath tubs. I do it for front and back garden and it works really well. My own personal soap box.
Hi althought I live an 8hr drive from Cape Town we are allowed 50ltrs per person per day. Our dams are 20% full and we are not allowed hoses and have to use a bucket to waterall the garden. IN the 50ltrs we also have to do the washing ect, so thegarden is neglected, We have 2x5000 0rain tanks that when full we use for the washing machine but no rain to fill them, also we have 400 ltr taks to keep ouir swimming pool topped up ,but can't use on the garden as it has chorline in it
It sounds like quite a serious situation in South Africa. I wonder what will happen if water really does run out? The way things are going it's going to happen to a few places in the near future.
I took the dog for a long walk today and most of the local streams are down to a slow trickle. There's a huge area of mountain and bog draining down through this area so seeing the levels so low is quite a worry.
Make sure to keep a bird bath topped up if you don't already. I keep one at ground level for smaller animals too as things like hedgehogs have to travel a lot further for water when it gets this dry.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Posts
The water companies SHOULDN'T be issuing hosepipe bans this year even if it doesn't rain until autumn, given how much rainfall there was over last winter.
Unless they've been wasting it by letting it leak all over the roads of course ....
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I've seen a system which I believe is catching on in Scandinavia, where you have a washbasin mounted on top of the toilet cistern. When you've finished washing your hands, you pull the plug, the water empties into the cistern, and you flush the toilet.
In the 1970's, I stayed in a house in the outskirts of Sarajevo. It was a modern house but had no water supply. They bought bottled water for drinking and cooking, bathed in the river which flowed past the bottom of the garden, and carried water from the river for washing. Instead of using the handbasin in the bathroom, they washed in a bowl of water on a plank across the bath. This water was then used for flushing. I don't know what the arrangement was for waste water, I think I prefer not to know.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dramatic-scenes-water-main-bursts-12571297
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/burst-water-main-blocks-busy-1265912
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-44227168
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
The utility companies are all morphing back together, the promised price competition hasn't happened, the railways get more taxpayers' money than ever before and the price of water has risen exponentially and domestic consumers have no choice from whom they buy it.