A large house with a garden pays more in council tax and water rates, than a flat with no garden. We don't have a meter, but as we pay more anyway, I figure that we can use what we need to avoid thousands of pounds worth of plants from dying. If everyone paid the same amount per person for water, then rationing it so everyone had the same would be OK.
I think paying more water rates because you live in a house is a tad unfair. I live in a house and am super careful. I turn off the tap when I brush my teeth, re-use bath water, have water butts, have flush rules. For much of the year I use much less than most households but am charged more than heavy users. Surely with water metres, they should remove the house/flat rule, else there's less incentive to be careful.
I need to have words with my water company but want to dedicate an afternoon to endless stupid, repeated calls to various call centres.
It's perfectly possible to water Everything in watering cans or, if you've only a few, well-rinsed milk or fruit juice containers. Nobody (in NI) has said you can't water your plants, you just can't use a hose to do it. My watering now takes hard work for a couple of hours every day, or every other day for some of them, but I'm damned if I'm going to let my carefully nurtured plants die! P'S I find the containers do better than the beds, where both are in full sun. Maybe there is something in the "water saving granules" (which I mixed into the compost without much hope) after all! ☺ But also, densely-packed containers shield the compost from the sun and don't evaporate as much. ☺
This maybe a silly question but can the water-saving granules be used in the ground, or just in pots? My poor, very loved hydrangeas have wilted leaves and many that are burnt and shrivelled and I can't keep up with the amount of water they need.
Hosta we pay a lot less now we have a water meter than before, we had a tiny 3 bedroom cottage, moved to a 2 bedroom bungalow, in square footage its about the same, I always understood water meters were really expensive. Mind you, I am always very acrefull, doing the "let it mellow" thing, short showers, 4 water butts. I have a son who is registered disabled, he lives in a one bed flat, when he first moved in was told the water rates are included in the rent, then after he had been living there a few years they said whoops we made a mistake, and were going to charge everyone the same, regardless of the fact that some of the flats are 3 bedroom and the occupants have children, he refused, said he would have a meter fitted, pay for what he used, bearing in mind he is ground floor, was told by the water company a meter couldnt be fitted, he moved in when the flats were brand new, 7 years ago, I thought they always fitted meters to new properties.Says in the papers today first hosepipe ban in 10 years, we are Southern/South East water had a ban in 2012
when it was no-where near this dry, and hot.We did have a wet spring this year.
I just saw a helicopter watering the newly planted trees at an NRW forest near here. They spent most of the winter digging holes with several JCBs then for weeks in early spring a small army of people treked up and down planting tree whips. I was starting to wonder if they'd have to let them die and replant but generating your own rain using a helicopter seems slightly inefficient.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I just don't trust large corporations like water companies. Yes, fitting a meter may be currently less expensive, but we are being conditioned like lab rats IMO. They are not doing this out of a sense of altruism or for care of the environment - its cash they want. Look at how other utilites have gone, from trains, to electricity and gas its like some kind of dodgy mafia casino where the odds are always stacked against the vulnerable and the non-eternally-vigilant. Water should be nationalised, then we could control it for the sake of the planet and the people
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P'S I find the containers do better than the beds, where both are in full sun. Maybe there is something in the "water saving granules" (which I mixed into the compost without much hope) after all! ☺ But also, densely-packed containers shield the compost from the sun and don't evaporate as much. ☺