Hosepipe bans on the way for this summer?

[alan refail]

With the weather seeming to follow the long-range forecast (for now at least) when do you reckon the first hosepipe ban will be declared?

[Geoff]

Who cares - smug bastard with borehole - but I am worried about electricity cuts over the next five years if somebody doesn't get their finger out and invest in new capacity.

[The Mouse]

This might sound like a silly question, but why aren't we building more reservoirs to provide water for the still-growing population?
To me, it seems like a much better use of public money than throwing it indiscriminately at struggling banks/industries. It would provide jobs now, at a time when they are needed, but we would all reap the benefits in the future!
This country is still getting large amounts of rainfall - just not always where and when it is needed - so surely we should be doing more to channel and store it!

[Johnboy]

Hi Caz,
The reason why we do not have more reservoirs is because of NIMBYISM and Local Authorities who will not give planning permission.
Thames Water closed several old reservoirs on the understanding that they could build a new all purpose reservoir in the Reading area then having closed the reservoirs the planning was revoked by the local authority that left Thames Water right up the creek without a reservoir so to speak.
In this country we take five steps forward and twenty five backwards because of Local Authorities!
JB.

[Primrose]

I'm not a fan of Thames Water - we're unfortunately enough to live in their area. You would have thought that any intelligent managaement wouldn't have closed an existing source of supply until they had a new one up and running, would you, but Thames Water are now in foreign ownership so I guess the needs of UK users are at the bottom of the priority list. Politicans keep giving us this "global ownership" mantra but I regard it as little short of treason to allow all this country's strategic resources to be sold off into foreign ownership. Politicians again! Can't trust most of them to do anything right for the good of the country, can you? If a hosepipe ban has to be introduced anywhere I trust that the managements of the utilities concerned will not be allowed to claim any perfomance bonuses. Apart from very exceptional weather purposes, implementing a hosepipe ban in my view is an admission of failure that your business hasn't acted sufficiently efficiently to meet customer needs.

[WestHamRon]

I'm not a fan of Thames Water - we're unfortunately enough to live in their area. You would have thought that any intelligent managaement wouldn't have closed an existing source of supply until they had a new one up and running, would you, but Thames Water are now in foreign ownership so I guess the needs of UK users are at the bottom of the priority list. Politicans keep giving us this "global ownership" mantra but I regard it as little short of treason to allow all this country's strategic resources to be sold off into foreign ownership. Politicians again! Can't trust most of them to do anything right for the good of the country, can you? If a hosepipe ban has to be introduced anywhere I trust that the managements of the utilities concerned will not be allowed to claim any perfomance bonuses. Apart from very exceptional weather purposes, implementing a hosepipe ban in my view is an admission of failure that your business hasn't acted sufficiently efficiently to meet customer needs.

I heartily agree.
I was looking for a "clapping" emoticon, but there doesn't appear to be one on this site.

[richard p]

it allways seems ludicrous to me that most buildings dont harvest rainwater and every time wee pee a pint we use 2 gallons of drinking water to flush the toilet.