The Rivers are Running Dry

[Chris Bishop]

<<<Future wars will be fought over water, it is as inevitable as night following day.>>>

I doubt this, as the countries which don't have it by and large lack the military capacity to challenge those who do.

Oil is the cornerstone of every civilised economy, the way we live our lives revolves around it.

It moves us and the things we need from one place to another and it also fuels the manufacture of so many things we take for granted.

We have and will fight wars for that.

I'll be interested to see the political fall-out from a drought in the South-east this summer.

I dread the environmental impacts, not least on fishing.

But I also wonder whether this is going to come up and bite Tony Blair on the bum.

 

[Frothey]

anyone remember that really crap kevin costner film "waterworld"


































































no, didnt think so.

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)]

Oh I don't know about that Chris.

To fuel China's fast developing economy vast amounts of water are going to be required. China is a country that could fight for more water. For instance, China is probably the worlds largest manufacturer of semiconductors, These things are used in computors. The amount of water required in this technology is enormous. And in many cases the factories do not re-cycle this water most of which is used to wash wafers.

This water can be re-cycled over and over again by the company that uses it. I wonder how many of these companies actually do this.

 

[john ledger]

Lets hope so Chris as its been looking him in the face since he was unfortunately elected. Everyone should be on a meter even though my wife and i are not and why people have to water the grass in summer is beyond me.

 

[john ledger]

If metering comes into force Chris the government must make allowances for people with large families,its the ones with 6 cars stuck outside the house they should collar

 

[john ledger]

How many cars have you got Chris seven

 

[Wolfman Woody]

Just had a talk from a director of Thames Water and some interesting stuff came out.

Here you can have a water meter fitted and if you don't save money in the first year you can go back to the old way of charging. All new properties will have a water meter fitted.

The Government (well two-Jags actually) is promoting the building of several thousand houses in the Thames estuary area and there hasn't been any though put into where the water comes from nor how or where to treat the sewage. Short-sighted or what?

The are talking about a desalination plant although treating Thames water when the tide is flowing out is cheaper. It will still be twice as expensive as normally treated water. Ken Livinstone is opposing it and suggests to put in normal treatment plants for fresh water. Fresh water from WHERE?

If you turn off the water whilst brushing your teeth this will save on average 1 litre of water per person per day. Or 2.5 BILLION gallons of water in a year just in the London area.

You can save a litre of water also with every flush of the toilet if you have an old style cistern. Thames Water will happily mail you a free bag containing crystals which when you drop it into the water tank it expands to the equivalent of 1 litre of water.

Problems are now cause by people concreting and tarmacing vast areas of land. Gone are the gardens that soaked up the rainfall, which means that when we get downpores it causes sewers to flood. (I take this with a small pinch of salt since TW has done soem things to worsen the situation)

 

[Chris Bishop]

China has bags of water. They're more likely to cause a war over oil the way things are going.

 

[john ledger]

One flush of the toilet in the western world will use enough water to keep a person in a third world country supplied all day for washing cooking drinking

 

[Michael Howson]

John.
My wife and I enquired about the feasibility of a meter and was told I could have one but I would have to pay for it and its installation and also relinquish the water board of any responsibility for faults leakages and any other problems that may occur. The fact that we are very economical with our consumption means it was hardly worth it for us. In Denmark I think that every households water consumption is monitored via a meter as a matter of course as it should be here to make the heavy users pay.

 

[Les Clark]

With the oncoming bird flu and the drought this year ,I feel that the fishing down here in the south east is going to be total crap ,we may have to travel up north and plunder Bazs water .

 

[jason fisher]

This water can be re-cycled over and over again by the company that uses it. I wonder how many of these companies actually do this.

all of them ron and you know it, water is recycled as soon as it hits about 2 meg ohm resistivity in line anything other than this and the ammount of water required to recylce it is completely un economic, both on energy requirements and water requirements for the ro recycling process.

as for water meters, when i first moved out from my parents years ago my girlfriend and i lived in a smaller house, did less washing up than my parents, as they tend to wash up everything in sight as soon as it gets dirty, rather than doing as i do, and washing the tea cups once per week if they're lucky.

my parents were paying just a little over half of that being taken from us on the meter. but then again that was yorkshire water for you.

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)]

At the moment the Don and Rother are running up and coloured. It rained quite heavily on the Pennines during the past two days.

Most of the northern rivers look fine and the ressies are full to the top.

They spoke about the new North South Divide on TV the other day. It's all about water. One mate of mine in the pub said we in the north should sell our water to the Londoners at ?50 a cubic metre. Let's face it, the people in the South East can afford to pay for it and it would even up the wealth divide a bit.

What I cannot understand is why they have not built more reservoirs in this country. There are some excellent sites for reservoirs in the South of England. A mighty reservior 30 miles long could be built on the Medway for example. A dam wall 3 miles long somewhere near Chatham would be ideal. It would ensure that the South East would never be short of water for the next 30 years or so, and what a fabulous trout fishery it would be.

The water would extend right back into The Weald above Tonbridge. Think of the tourist as well as the angling potential.

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)]

That's right John.

During the devastating drought of 1984 in Natal, people were not allowed to flush their toilets for many weeks.

A friend of mine who lived at Hillcrest was digging holes in his garden to shit in.

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)]

Byt the way Chris, China does have a lot of water, but the vast majority of it is polluted!

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)]

I'm very glad to hear that Jason because my comment was meant for you.

But what evidence do we have that they do this at waferfabs in the Far East.

There were two waferfabs in SA that I used to do a lot of business with. They didn't recycle the water at all!

 

[Les Clark]

Bewl reservoir is only about %40 full and very little chance of a increase ,they are trying to get permisson to pump water from the River Medway .

 

[jason fisher]

don't know about out there ron, but the iso 14001 environmental standards cover the whole of europe, they cover recycling and waste reduction of all types, i know this because we got accredited a couple of weeks ago. it even covers things like having recycling points for the plastic cups out of drinks machines, and drinks cans.

 

[john ledger]

I reckon that if we are to sell our water to our southern friends then they must pay the ultimate price ?100 per cubic metre plus another ten pound every time they flush the toilet. I will be also insist that we add half a pint of laxative liquid to every gallon of water they take giving additional revenue every time they go for a crap

 

[john ledger]

Pretty sure Woody and Jason would would approve of this move or movement in positive terms. Velvet Nectar the waters of the North