So when's the next water shortage due?

[Dave Baker]

It's been pissing down for months and the worst floods in living memory. What that tells me is that we're shortly due for hosepipe bans and water restrictions given that the water authorities in this country seem to be totally unable to provide for uninterrupted supplies of the stuff in one of the wettest countries on earth. The usual excuse is that rain doesn't help them much because it just runs away and doesn't actually get into the underground water table. Maybe if it rained underground more instead of above it? Still I'm not a meteorologist so what do I know?

[Andrew Mawson]

doesn't help

Yet 'they' tell us that even normal levels of rain can now lead to flooding as the ground is saturated ! It's a case of the 'authorities' having their cake and eating it (or rather having OUR cake and eating it)

AWEM

(Who for decades has been a conformist, but now is getting distinctly anarchist tendancies)

[Andy Hall]

Excellent. There's hope yet :-)

[djc]

I've always been an anarchist, but contrary to the usual pattern, I seem to getting more so the older I get.

[The Medway Handyman]

Quite a few years ago I worked as a rep for Karcher & we had a hosepipe ban in the south east, which caused a bit of a drop in sales.

I was talking to one of the German guys about this.

He said he knew Kent, it was bordered by the Thames estuary & the sea on three sides and had a river running diagonally through it. He couldn't understand how we could have a water shortage!

[Andrew Mawson]

hosepipe ban

couldn't

... ah... but that would be during the time that the Germans owned Thames Water no doubt

AWEM

[nightjar]

It is anticipated that, if water use continues to grow at the current rate, the Ganges will run out of water before it reaches the sea within a few decades. The Thames would not even make a decent tributary to the Ganges.

Colin Bignell

[Dave Baker]

"nightjar .uk.com>"

Assuming the current rates of continental drift continue into the future it'll be several hundred million years before the Thames could ever become a tributary to the Ganges. However that's probably still not long enough for the water authorities in this country to get their act together. Humans will have mutated into 2 foot tall scaly reptilians with advanced ESP abilities but hosepipe bans will still be, like death and taxes, one of those invariables of life.

[nafuk]

It's to do with farming practices, building on flood planes, the concreting of driveways, low soakaway installation, overcrowding etc. etc. It all means that the water does not get a chance to soak into the ground but is directed into storm drains etc. and then into rivers. Oh yes, and we also plant thirsty gardens, use power showers, wash leaves up with pressure washers, use pressure washers to wash cars, windows, decking, pavement, flush when it's only yellow etc. etc. Last year a program on reducing waste filmed a lady, who whilst cleaning the bathroom, always left the basin taps running because she liked the sound of running water!

[dennis]

In the SE? Sooner rather than later as you lack storage for the water and have too many people.

Not a lot by the sound of it.

[Stuart Noble]

There is an extremely large reservoir located underground in SELondon. Driven over it many times and never knew it was there.

[Andrew Mawson]

SELondon.

There are several, mostly Victorian, reservoirs underground in SE London. Built when they had the confidence and style to do things properly.

AWEM

[dennis]

How many days worth of water?

[Stuart Noble]

According to Thames Water...

"Honor Oak Reservoir is Europe?s largest underground reservoir, beneath Peckham Golf Course. It holds enough water for 1 million people."

i.e. quite a lot :-)

[Stuart Noble]

The London ring main sounds like a pretty ambitious project

[Andy Hall]

For how long though?

Looks like Thames Water uses the same marcomms firm as Persil.

[The Natural Philosopher]

For 1 million people to do *what*? make a cup of tea?

[David Hansen]

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 18:44:10 +0100 someone who may be "Dave Baker" wrote this:-

In this country Scottish Water, a QANGO, does a reasonable job though a far from perfect one.

In other parts of the UK (excluding perhaps Northern Ireland) I understand water supply is privatised. This was supposed to bring thrusting, forward-looking, enterprise to replace the tired old men of the public sector.

No matter what the ownership, the problem the organisations concerned face is rising demand. More households, more appliances in these households, more gadgets (how many people wash cars with a bucket of water and cloth these days?). There is also great reluctance to building more reservoirs from the landscape lobby.

The answer is to reduce demand, as well as reduce the amount of water pissing out of the pipes (a particular problem in the London area I gather). Water saving shower heads and the like are one option which involve minimal adaption. Using rainwater for gardens and washing cars is little more complicated. Flushing toilets and washing clothes with rainwater requires more thought, but can be done. Then there is full grey water recycling and composting toilets.

[Frank Erskine]

Water supply around here has always been private, therefore in a sense it hasn't been 'privatised' :-)

[No-one]

Hello Stuart,

For how many days? Population of London now put at over 7 million.

regard