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Don't get me wrong, my daily grind involves bashing my head against the wall with stupid investment decisions. I berate the businessman ethic all the time and as @Fretwired points out, the unsustainable debt situation must come to a head at some point, but there has been major improvements from the local authority days since privatisation.
My gripe is with idiotic contract designers who follow audit trail design procedures. The guys that run the works do a great job, if they didn't you would soon know about it.
To answer your question:
Severn Trent estimates that 66% of unmetered households own an outside tap and use it for 0.89 times/day. On average they use 47l/household.day. This is normal consumption budgeted into their water resource plan, in hot dry weather this increases significantly. Hosepipe bans (more correctly, Temporary Use Bans or Non Essential Use Bans) are triggered when resources fall into 'Zone E' on the drought trigger zone of a particular reservoir (graded A-F, F being the worst)
If you want more information, and I'm pleased that people are taking an interest in the subject, here's some more information.
https://www.severntrent.com/content/dam/stw/ST_Corporate/About_us/Docs/AppendixB-What-is-the-likely-demand-for-water.pdf
https://www.severntrent.com/about-us/future-plans/water-resource-management/final-wrmp-documents/
Other water Co's are available.
Let's say people need Beer to survive (I know, probably some on here in that category). You get as much Beer as you want, whenever you want it and it costs you, not £4 a pint, but 40p a pint. Yay! Then there's a world cup, and people start using all the beer up so people who don't like football can't give Beer to their babies. The barman says, hey guys, you can't handle more than 6 pints of this stuff, why keep blatting yourself with 10-12 pints, there's some kids over their really need to get pi**ed? At which point the drunkard looks on the floor and see's that some beer has spilled out of the ullage trays onto the floor and wonders why the barman doesn't give that to the kids instead.
I live right next to a bridge. At the side of the bridge is an exposed water pipe which travels along the outside of the bridge. It’s quite a big pipe..
Recently, some guys from the water company came and erected a posh metal fence up (partly on my land without permission) to stop people from climbing onto the pipe (kids do from time to time but not for a few years now..) I went up to them to ask them why they weren’t going to fix the leak in the pipe - there is a joint in it and the joint leaks - it must let go of a fair amount of water each year.. more than I’d ever use from a hosepipe. “Not economically viable” was the reply..
apparently however it’s not environmentally friendly so I try not to any more, even though I have paid to do so.
just cos I can pay for something doesn’t give me a right to do so and not be part of the problem
The issue is whether or not the amount of water saved by a hosepipe ban is more or less than the amount the utility company loses on leakage each year. And whether they should be fixing those leaks as part of their commitment to the service rather than taking profit instead.
But, this is about hosepipe bans, and we can all do our bit not to waste a precious resource just because we shouldn't have too. Take a shower instead of a bath. You do your bit, I'll keep fighting the idiots from the inside.
Where do people find these words very entitled people
what we have in Britain is a large working and middle class who should in the 21st century reasonably expect to have clean water and sanitary conditions which they work and pay for.
most of those people are very aware of less fortunate souls in underdeveloped countries and in their own who dont have the staples hence those people donate billions to charity every year.
I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.
However there is now another moorland fire a few miles away on Winter Hill:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-44671875#
The most astonishing thing about this one is that it was started deliberately! Police have arrested a 22-year-old man from Bolton on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life. Meanwhile over 100 fire-fighters are risking life and limb trying to put it out. They are using helicopters to drop water from Anglezarke Reservoir onto the fire.
I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.
What you mean is there is no 'choice'. And you would be correct.
Indeed, but then how many other 'privatised' companies have such a protection mechanism?
In my view, the current regulatory system has run it's course. It worked at the beginning, driving investment in return for profit (ignoring the investment coming from the water Co's borrowing money from themselves for now). We improved the infrastructure and quality went up. This was in part driven by total adherence to EU quality objectives (unlike e.g. Spain who pick and choose. Would you drink the water in Spain? I digress). But you can only clean it up so much before the return on investment starts getting into 80/20 territory. We throw a lot more chemicals into rivers than we used to, and point source nutrient load is reduced. But farmers still throw tonnes of fertilizer into rivers so the impact is negligible. etc...etc...
With the EU out of the way, who knows what will drive improvement going forward? No one knows yet. There is still the serviceability aspect to keep ahead of but I think you may have hit the nail on the head with regard to choice. it's not easy to manage the responsibilities when it comes to sharing a critical resource like water. Industry supplies already have choice via inset agreements but Tories like to let market forces decide the price. So, I guess we will soon be seeing the trade in supply opened up to this effect. In fact the Severn Trent businessmen are already making plans, and we know which side their bread is buttered. Be careful what you wish for...
http://wwtonline.co.uk/news/severn-trent-to-buy-dee-valley-water-for-78-5m
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
A gamekeeper claims youths who started the Saddleworth blaze are mocking justice while police take no action
Seven days of fighting the fire ripping through Saddleworth Moor have left Richard Burch exhausted, stinking of ash — and furious.
Not only has he seen three years of hard work restoring the moor go up in flames but the youths he claims to have seen starting the fire are around his village, with no police response.
Burch, a gamekeeper for the Stalybridge Estate, where the fire started, told police a week ago how four scrambler bikers had built a racecourse, ripping up vegetation and setting it on fire.
“I got a phone call on Sunday afternoon saying there was smoke on the moor. I went up in my ATV [all terrain vehicle]. There were four bikers who had made a sort of racecourse with jumps. There was rubbish all over and that’s where the fire started. I have three other lads with me who were witnesses.
“The bikers were hurling abuse at me — they knew I couldn’t catch them. By the time I got there . . . the fire was raging.”
Over the past week, seven square miles of land between Tameside and Oldham have been ablaze, blanketing the area in smoke and ash. About 160 firefighters have been battling the inferno, aided by 100 soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The moors, and their wildlife, have been destroyed and thousands of people have had a week of breathing highly polluted air.
The alleged culprits, however, have not been questioned. Greater Manchester police said the investigation was led by the fire service. Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service said no investigation would start until the fire was out.
The final costs could run into millions of pounds. Major Phil Morgan, of 4th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, said his men had dug trenches to contain the fire. “Six months ago they were in Iraq in 50C heat. At least here there’s no risk of being shot at,” he said.
The blaze has also sparked a battle over just how an area of bogs and wetland became dry enought to burn so fast.
Pat Thompson, uplands policy manager for the RSPB, the bird charity, whose nearby Dove Stone reserve was also damaged, said: “Grouse moors are mostly wetland that have been dried out to encourage heather to grow. This dries the peat, which becomes very flammable.”
The land is mostly owned by Enville and Stalybridge Estates, a family trust, which has spent five years turning it into a grouse shoot. It received taxpayer-funded farm grants of £303,000 in 2016 with £215,000 for “practices beneficial to climate”.
Peter Williams, part-owner of Enville and Stalybridge, disagreed with the charity. “The RSPB ignores the benefits of grouse moors for ground-nesting birds,” he said. However, he admitted, the fire had destroyed those benefits: “We have lost our birds and they take a long time to return. The future is very grim with 80% burnt.”
For Burch, the tragedy is personal. “The wildlife it has taken out is unbelievable. It will take years to restore. Only in the last two years we’ve had nightjars nesting on the moor for the first time in 30 years. Now they’re gone”
As if to rub salt into the wound he also saw one of the men he blames for the blaze driving his motorbike around a village. “He lifted his visor, grinned at me and sped off. It was a taunt.”
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!