Desert Britain

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Chris Bishop

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Not a newspaper I normally get time to read, but someone left a copy yesterday's Guardian on my desk and I read the piece on drought from start to finish.

One of their hacks and some water bods went in search of a river which has dried up already, long before the predicted drought hits.

"It's not as if we are going to die if we don't use our dishwashers.

"The question really is, should be be using a dishwasher and letting a river die..?"
 
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Bryan Baron 2

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Its not just dishwasers. When iwas growing up many moons ago. We would have a bath once or twice a week. Now people are haveing showers 2-3 times a day this uses more water and the population is increasing at a alarming rate especially down south. Where there is a natural lack of water.

If nothing is done soon then the situation is only going to get worse.
 
Peter Jacobs

Peter Jacobs

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If you think about it, there are about 58 million people in the UK.
Suppose they all bathe once a day that means that we are taking: 211,170,000,000 baths/showers a year.

Given the average family consists of 4.3 people and the dishwasher is run once per day, then I think that a little perspective is needed?

Recently one of "Nanny's little helpers" (Mary Creagh MP) has tried to introduce a mandatory thermostat on our baths and showers based on the 'fact' that 600 people a year are burned or scalded by hot water.

Do the maths!

The mind fairly boggles!!!!!!!
 
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Ric Elwin

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One answer might be to put a tax on non-essential usage. So, every dishwasher costs an addtional 100.00, the revenues going directly to a non-profit organisation. This organisation could develop into a major national player on environmental issues.

I know I need to get into the real world but give me a chance, had a few Stellas last night!

Oh, there could be a tax on car washes as well. What a ridiculous waste of water that is.
 
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Beecy

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ive no bright ideas as to where the cash would come from, but before we start restricting/taxing water usage the first thing to be tackled should be the water wasted through leakage
 
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Bob Watson

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I've heard it mentioned somewhere that more water is lost through leaks than is used by consumers. Not sure if this is fact but I wouldn't be surprised.
 
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Beecy

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Doubt if youd ever get accurate figures Bob, the data would have to come from the water companies and they will have targets to meet, you can bet the figures would show they are meeting them
 
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Jeff Woodhouse

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Leakage is the worst offender. 800 million gallons of water per day. That equal to the Middle Thames ripping through after a few days of good summer storm.
 
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Chris Bishop

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Thames Water loses 227m litres of water a day, which is more than the city of Leeds, pop 800,000, uses in 24 hours.

However, they're dependant on infrastructure dating back to Georgian/Victorian times in some areas - they can't just knock your house down to renew a water main.

They're looking at building a massive 10 mile square reservoir near Abingdon - the Upper Thames Major Resource Development - to try and ensure continuity of supply.
 
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Bill Cox

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The problem is that the water companies have lost sight of what they were formed for. Namely supplying the population with safe clean drinking water. When they were publicly owned that was the priority but they were shackled by lack of investment from successive governments. When they were privatised the aim was to get the investment the industry needed to drag itself out of the victorian era and into the 21st century. They then had two priorities, supply and profit. This would have been alright but for the inevitable greed that was bound to creep into the heart of all the newly formed companies. The equation should be simple, Pay big enough dividends to shareholders to encourage the needed investment for modernisation of the infrastructure but above all else maintain supply. The reality of course is that obscene amounts are paid out in dividends while water soaks away into the ground and the customer is expected to pay an ever increasing amount for an ever decreasing service.
 
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Chris Bishop

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The Thatcher Government saw things like EU bathing water quality directives coming and realised some of the companies - notably South West Water - would require massive investment to comply.

The truth is the whole thing needs a rethink. Surrey is one of the heaviest water users, with 50 golf courses alone using 7m litres each a year.

Yet it's in the driest part of the country.

The national grid thing is the answer notwithstanding the cost.

Interestingly enough, when I did a story on this a couple of weeks back, Elliott Morley the Environment Minister wrote to the paper saying it was wrong, despite the fact the EA and water industry sources I'd spoken to said it was being looked into.

Massive start-up costs, but British waterways, which controls the key canal network which link the west of the country with the east, reckons it could work and is on record saying as much.

Then there's esturial storage, ie diverting some of the water from rivers which run into The Wash and one or two other esturaries rather than just letting it run out to sea.

Things are going to change massively within our lifetimes. That much is certain.
 
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Bill Cox

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We can discuss possible ways of saving water and improving water distribution untill were blue in the face Chris, fact is that until the water companies are forced to cut there dividend payouts and forced to upgrade the systems at a faster rate NOTHING WILL BE DONE.
 
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Chris Bishop

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Agreed in principle but the whole thing needs a rethink when you look at the amount of houses the ODPM say we need to build and where they propose to build them.
 
Phil Adams

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I have often wondered just how much water is kept in bottles through the world.

The bottled water market is pretty big and I wonder just how much of an impact it has made on our water supply as a whole.
 
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jon helyer

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Dishwashers believe it or not, use about 20 litres of water a go, that is actually quite efficient if the appliance is stuffed full before putting it on, imagine how many bowls you would need to do the same amount.

In the summer 50% of water usage goes into gardens, i.e outside use. This obviously has to be reduced. What annoys me are the people who wash their car 3 times a week with a hosepipe whether the car needs it or not. 2 other ways of saving water, don't leave the tap running when washing hands/cleaning teeth etc, and only flush the toilet when you have a dump, that saves loads.

The South East doesn't seem to have hardly any reservoirs, out of proportion to the population in this area, add to that the high leakage rate and low rainfall and the problems are compounded.

We are all going to have to think a LOT more about future water useage.....
 
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Disco stu

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Lads, lads, lads. Speaking in my official capacity as an Inspector with Anglian Water, I must urge you to believe all we have to say about the current crisis we are facing.

Crisis? What crisis. Ive got plenty of water. All I have to do is turn my tap on.
 
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