Well there's no surprise that parts of Southern and Eastern England are facing potential water shortages unless there is an extended period of precipitation.
Having spent a very wet couple of days in the Lakes; well what do you expect, it got me thinking. What have the water companies done since the 1995 draught to help alleviate another possible water shortage? It seem very little. The heaviest rainfall and the largest storage areas are in Wales, The Lakes and Scotland. The largest conurbations are in the SE.
Now gas, oil and other chemicals are piped around the country but it seems the water companies do not wish to invest hoping to chance the British weather will come up trumps. So the bill paying public are expected to ration their consumption because of lack of investment.
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 21 Feb 12 at 21:08
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I read the title of your post and now I've got 20 ft of draught excluder, which isn't going to help!
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What they need in the South East is a draught excluder!
:o)
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I thought the title was a reference to a new beer.
Beer! That's the answer to a drought!
The water companies have done a lot to reduce leaks, apparently. It's the weather forecasters you need to have a go at, we need them to order more rain. I'd guess consumption has gone up as well, though I've seen no reference to rates of usage. There's probably no reliable measure.
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Mods please please edit before the real heavyweights take me apart :-)
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>> Mods please please edit
There you go. One of us has taken pity on you.
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Its not that hard. Rivers in the main flow in the right direction.
The bleedin romans could channel water from the Alps, in sufficient quantites to waste on fountains in the toe of italy!
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>> The bleedin romans could channel water from the Alps, in sufficient quantites to waste on
>> fountains in the toe of italy!
They probably didn't wash much, and they drank wine. Fountains were what water was for.
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>> They probably didn't wash much, and they drank wine. Fountains were what water was for.
This is the same romans who spent half the day in the baths?
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>> This is the same romans who spent half the day in the baths?
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Only the posh ones.
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I've the answer.
Dilute it!
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>> Dilute it!
We had that joke in the village panto last week - were you there bt?
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There was an old person called Lud
Who was up to his armpits in mud,
But managed to wonder
Before he went under
'Is this drought, like the last one, a dud?'
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I remember it being illegal or at least frowned upon or something to wash your car at one time. Want to think it was about 1989 / 1990 when there was a shortage of water in some places.
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I think that using a hose pipe was frowned upon. But a bucket or two was OK.
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The SE has had escallating water problems for years now, an increasingly overpopulated region for a variety of reasons, indeed an overpopulated country for many of the same reasons.
The island shouldn't be home for so many, obvious to anyone normal, which excludes politicians, that it isn't sustainable.
Carry on self destructing Britain, the more the merrier.
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I think its caused by the weather gord (or the lack of it)
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We've got plenty here.
It's been piddling down all day and there's more tomorrow. Anyone suffering a shortage just send me a jam jar and I'll fill it and send it back by return.
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This has been looked at a few times - apparently the last study suggested piping water to the SE would cost 5 or 6 times more than working and re-working what is already there.
Yummy.
Apparently there's an old canal tunnel linking Severn and Thames that some chap was suggesting could be used as a viaduct on the beeb sight yesterday too.
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Overpopulation is not going to change Gordon.Unless we start culling people.
Why haven't these water companies not invested more in the past they have taken plenty of money from us.Most of us are crammed in big citys.Canals and more reservoirs can be build might bring unemployement down a bit also.
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>> Canals and more reservoirs can be build might bring unemployement down a bit also.
>>
That's a bit harsh, isn't it?
I kmow the unemployed can be a bit of a pain, always whining, but drowning them...
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Made me laugh very funny.>)
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>> We had that joke in the village panto last week - were you there bt?
Nah, it's recycled from '76 (like our drinking water).
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That figures, there were no new jokes in the panto!
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Why not install piping adjacent to the rail network and transfer water from the overflowing reservoirs in the N.W.
to the dust bowl of the S.E. & E.
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Why not encourage investment and development away from the SE ?
Most heavily subsidised part of the UK, so it is ;-)
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>> Why not encourage investment and development away from the SE ?
>>
>> Most heavily subsidised part of the UK, so it is ;-)
Cobblers
The reason there is no water shortage up north is because you dirty gits dont wash.
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>>The reason there is no water shortage up north is because you dirty gits dont wash
That's as may be, but at least we're not drinking each others' pee.
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Pee containing medication residues including those from "The Pill" too!
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Oi! no nicking water from up `ere! - or we`ll have a ban as well! and i like to keep the tap running when i have a shower!
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The Victorians would have soon sorted things out, we have a big metal underground pipe running past the end of our garden which is always full of lovely fresh soft water coming all the way from Thirlmere and Haweswater to South Manchester
It's about 4ft in diameter and flows by gravity. I imagine it could be done in plastic now but the lickpennys won't pay for it.
When we drag the bath out of the shed every month and boil a few kettles, it does make the soap lather up nicely !
As a slight aside, the construction led to the passing of the ' Manchester Corporation Waterworks Improvement Act 1844 ' This gave the police yje power to arrest any person in possession of any item. He then had to prove legality of his possession. We used the act a lot in the 60s.
Guilty before proving yourself innocent ! Yuman rights wouldn't like that !
Ted.
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>> The Victorians would have soon sorted things out....
>>
Down hill from Wales to Birmingham as well:
www.elanvalley.org.uk/dams-reservoirs/history-of-the-dams/
>> When we drag the bath out of the shed every month and boil a few
>> kettles, it does make the soap lather up nicely !
>>
Same here.
As an aside to Z - the locations of your Brummie railway view enquiry elsewhere are some distance from my gaff.
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If there was a hosepipe ban, what would be the definition of a hosepipe? I have an eighteen inch length of hosepipe attached to our outside tap so that watering cans can be stood on the ground while they're being filled.
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No exemptions. I expect you will be locked up for a very long while L'es
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>> No exemptions. I expect you will be locked up for a very long while L'es
Or as a repeat offender, taken outside and...
:)
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Drought in UK is like a bad winter. Everybody says how bad it is and how we should 'do something'. Situation then breaks, reversion to mean occurs and nobidy's willing to stump up the investment.
In 76, in the week before the August Bank Holiday, the PM appointed Dennis Howell as a drought minister. It started to rain aruond lunchtime on Bank Holiday Sunday and carried on for most of September.
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Are there special tyres for drought conditions?
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>> Are there special tyres for drought conditions?
>>
Slicks.
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We could start a 'Is It Time To Fit Drought Tyres' thread.
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What do you use in a winter drought?
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>>We could start a 'Is It Time To Fit Drought Tyres' thread.<<
S'not draughty enough for that yet.
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>> S'not draughty enough for that yet.
Tiz round 'ere...
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>> In 76, in the week before the August Bank Holiday, the PM appointed Dennis Howell as a drought minister. It started to rain aruond lunchtime on Bank Holiday Sunday and carried on for most of September. >>
You don't need to go that far back.
www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulhudson/2011/06/deluge-follows-drought-order.shtml
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>> >> In 76, in the week before the August Bank Holiday, the PM appointed Dennis
>> Howell as a drought minister. It started to rain aruond lunchtime on Bank Holiday Sunday
>> and carried on for most of September. >>
>>
>> You don't need to go that far back.
>>
>> www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulhudson/2011/06/deluge-follows-drought-order.shtml
>>
>>
So we obviously just need to appoint a Minister for Drought.
Job done.
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>>what would be the definition of a hosepipe?
Back in '76, SWMBO was pregnant and having baths. I'd syphon the bath water to my veg patch (soapy water kept the bugs down). A neighbour dobbed me in, but back then the ban only applied to hoses connected to a mains water supply. I had fun with the water board employees. They could see the water wasn't clear and the hose snaking in through the bathroom window, but insisted they needed to see evidence of it syphoning out of the bath. They weren't prepared to taste it when I offered them a glassful of it. I wasn't prepared to let them witness SWMBO in the bathroom, so they had to wait.
Because the hosepipe ban only applied to hoses connected to a mains water supply, it would have been quite legal to fill any container (bath, cold water tank, etc.) and syphon it from there.
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No drought here: nor any likely.
I'll sell water at £0.50 per gallon. Collect only:-)
I recall 1976: I was a lovely shade of brown...
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Dog water from my own private supply - 50p per litre - discount for quan titties and 4play members.
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>> Dog water from my own private supply - 50p per litre - ..........
You robdog (tinyurl.com/7vy75ho)! Madf only charges 50p per gallon!
Last edited by: L'escargot on Wed 22 Feb 12 at 13:31
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Me no robdog, me have private water supply from underground spring.
Cornish spring water = 50p a litre, wassamatta with that.
:)
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When I was young, and times were hard, three of us bathed in the same bath water and we only had one bath a week. If everyone did that nowadays there probably wouldn't ever be a water shortage.
Last edited by: L'escargot on Wed 22 Feb 12 at 13:02
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>> When I was young, and times were hard, three of us bathed in the same
>> bath water and we only had one bath a week. If everyone did that nowadays
>> there probably wouldn't ever be a water shortage.
>>
Washing too much is bad for the skin.
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The world be a lot more odorous
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>>SWMBO was pregnant and having baths<<
We should all follow the example of Mrs Tubby Tommy and only have a bath if we are pregnant!
Pat
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Copy the blackbirds and have a sand bath.
Wears the enamel a bit though.
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Lynx is the answer to drought...
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>> Lynx is the answer to drought...
>
Ah......the old Glasgow shower !
Ted
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Draught Looms. - Meldrew
