Hosepipe ban

....does not apply to households if a Blue badge holder lives there.. Why ?

 

Because it's difficult to water your garden with watering cans, for example, if you have mobility issues.

 

My mum doesn't have a blue badge but she struggles to grip. A mixture of carpal tunnel, arthritis and some other condition where bone in her hands grow and fuse. I was only chatting with her this morning and she said she's struggling with lifting watering cans from the water butts. It took her an age just to uncouple the hose as she felt guilty it being on display, let alone using it.

As an aside, I can't even imagine how much water is used by sporting clubs and facilities through hosepipe bans.

 

I walked past a car cleaning yard the other day - surprised they haven't had to find another way (or being grassed up if they were being illegal).

 

Businesses exempt

 

A lad I know was telling me he'd had a bird leave a big turd on his window at home, he was bairning about the hosepipe ban. I said, it's only a bit of bird shít just leave it. No he said, he filled a bucket full of water to wash it off and then another to rinse it.

I'm sure there's loads of instances where the ban has resulted in people using more water than they would have to do something.

 

This thing about Yorkshire Water getting permission to divert Aire and Wharfe to top up reservoirs............ is there no way they could do the same when we are in flood? Surely that would alleviate floodplain problems without getting anywhere near taking reservoirs to dangerous high levels?

 

I was up in the Lakes a few weeks ago and had a two hour cruise on Ullswater. The thought occurred to me at the time along the lines of why isn’t there an engineering solution in place to decant a lot of this water to reservoirs. These lakes are not just little bodies of water a few metres deep. They’re like inland, fresh water seas so would be ideal to supply the country with all the water it needs.

I suppose I’m being naive but it’s a pity that in this 21st century the water companies are unable, or unwilling, to tap this vast natural resource.

 

If they'd spent the money from our bills on fixing leaks instead of shareholders pocketing the money there'd have been no need for a hosepipe ban.

 

Spend on infrastructure rather than management bonuses and shareholder dividends and there wouldn't be a problem.

 

Go abroad to countries where it hardly ever rains and they don’t have any issues. We get a dry spell and there’s restrictions. It’s all about profit over providing a decent service.

 

I'm pretty sure there would be severe environmental impacts from doing such a thing, it's never going to happen in a National Park like the Lake District. Also abstraction from rivers is at environmentally unsustainable levels, particularly by farms and other businesses.

If only we'd built a few reservoirs over the last 40 years....

Basically water privatisation has put us in a position where here in the UK, one of the wettest countries in Europe we simply don't have enough water storage capacity.

 

And we’re surrounded by the wet stuff, let’s not forget, so should never be a problem.

 

The sea is a bit salty though. De-salination is a highly energy intensive process.

 

I know. I was being flippant.

 

That's what sons are for.

 

Not necessarily true. Where we live in Italy it is very often the case in summer that we have restrictions on water usage. Last year the water was turned off from 2100 to 0700 every day during July, August and September. We were lucky, other areas in our region the water was turned off at 1800 to 0700. That said, Italy has a long history of not investing in infrastructure, it is very much like the UK in that respect

 

Bit tricky being 190 miles away though! Hence why it’s the plan to move her in with my wife and I once we’ve moved out of London. Definitely above and beyond!!!

 

07:00 seems quite late! I’m out the door for work at 06:45, I bet I wouldn’t be a popular person to hang around. Especially as I wouldn’t be home by 18:00 most days. I’d only have access to water on weekends.

 

That's exactly what we said. Especially as the Italians have reposo usually from 1300-1500/1600 and then work until 1900 Monday to Friday. We never experienced any smelly people after 1800 I hasten to add