Fresh Water availability

boatone

boatone

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Joined
29 Jul 2001
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Just a few cables from Boulters Lock
www.tmba.org.uk
Availability of fresh water, well there’s a conundrum.
The Water Industry Act 1999, which the EA, 20 years on, eventually realised they need to comply with, requires specific safeguards regarding supply of freshwater through supply points on the river.
The Thames is a Category 5 polluted waterway which indicates the presence of faecal matter. This requires water delivery points to be specifically constructed to prevent any reverse contamination from the waterway affecting the water supply system. Although there are some relatively simple solutions suitable for refilling small containers , it appears that there are, currently, no solutions capable of providing a satisfactory solution for the replenishment of bulk tanks on boats.
So, the base problem is that the river is severely polluted. Because of this boats are currently unable to enjoy reasonable access to fresh water at EA lockside facilities. The EA will tell you that they have no statutory responsibility to supply such a facility - but they ARE responsible for the health of the waterway. Go figure.
Oh, and given all the above, why should people want to swim in the river? Indeed, should they be permitted to?
 
and how much shit has Thames water dumped into the river since I lived in Hampton 25 years ago ?

It is a basic human right to provide clean water and with all this plastic save the oceans bullshit does it not all become a contradiction ???
 
Depending on how one carries out the boating it is not all that necessary to use much fresh water at all.

A lot of the liquid input especially while berthed can take place without consuming a single drop of tank stored water.

It's when one gets to things like washing and over extravagant toileting arrangements that one must consider whether perhaps the boating mode lends itself to having a mooring and permanent water supply.

Or a filtration plant. Quite a lot of people use full time filtration these days and if it's done right the water often comes out cleaner than what you get out of a tap in a house.

Considering that the River is used as an open sewer by the "we love shareholders" water utility companies if there is a bit of precipitation this is quite impressive.

Does need a good quality well maintained filtration system though.
 
On our last trip up had no problem getting any water from any of the water points we stopped at, just using the perfectly ordinary bog standard hoselock type connector available anywhere on the planet.
45 gallon tank.
Our hose was exactly the same length and OD have always used since first coming round to the Thames 20 years ago and it did not appear to take any longer to fill than normal.
The number of boats and ques did not appear to be any bigger than on previous visits, where and when we stopped to refill.
Never let it get to low, just topped up at every opportunity when passing any vacant water supply, it did probably mean taking 15 mins longer to get to our next destination but what the hell.
Perhaps Thames boaters need to manage their use of water more efficiently and as most moor in marinas with water top up before you go out.
On the other hand , one look at the number of narrowboats waiting to fill up with water at the first lock just above Windsor ????? and it prompted us to keep going.
Could the problem be the increasing size of the water tanks on certain types of craft be compounding the problem ?
 
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oldgit said:
On the other hand , one look at the number of narrowboats waiting to fill up with water at the first lock just above Windsor ????? and it prompted us to keep going.
Could the problem be the increasing size of the water tanks on certain types of craft be compounding the problem ?
Click to expand...
The Widebeam boats are becoming more and more popular and have huge water tanks. They can take well over an hour at the current water points.
Its a concern that Cleese is out of action as it had two taps last year which reduced queues significanty.
If we are to be stuck with the new taps, then it would help to at least install additional points in current locations
 
I was always told / led to believe that the domestic style taps were only supposed to be used by small day boats / dinghies etc who wanted to fill up kettles etc. I was reprimanded for attaching a hose to it.
If I wanted to fill a tank, then I had tu ise the bulk supply "fire hyrdant" hoses instead?
 
boatone said:
Most lock water supply lines are at the nd of the line and suffer from low pressure at the nest of times. Adding a second tap to a single supply feed will just result in two unsatisfactory deliveries.
Click to expand...

That's not true for the bulk supplies at places like Molesey. Chertsey, Boveney, Cookham, Hurley etc.

When the fire hoses were in place the delivery was fast in some cases it was very fast and caused some problems. In fact the EA did fit reducers to the supply pipe in order to slow down the delivery rate at one stage because water tanks were being damaged.

I know of at least two people (including me) who had water tanks split by the fast filling hose at Cookham for example. It really shifted a LOT of water.

If what you say was correct then fitting these silly non return / restriction devices would have made no difference. We all know that they did make a difference and a very big difference because it slowed the delivery rate right down.

It's not only the location of the tap it is also the supply pipe diameter which will make it either deliver fast or slow.

I'm pretty sure they were originally plumbed in 25mm blue water pipe which is going to allow a lot of water through it. Red chubb fire hoses at one stage then some blue ones.

Multiple taps would work brilliantly on these supplies.
 
It's always possible there is some joined up thinking and the restriction in water supplies is deliberate in order to attempt to prevent the River being completely overrun by high consuming floating apartments.

Or maybe not.
 
I see Abingdon water point joins the pumpout in being out of use...

Now both working according to the river conditions site, ie they are not listed.

Goring closed though.
 
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Don't forget, flow rate and pressure don't equate. Twice the outlets, half the pressure at each. As someone said here a few days back, how come it works for marinas. They only use the standard garden type hose union bib taps with a double check valve.
 
plumbob said:
Don't forget, flow rate and pressure don't equate. Twice the outlets, half the pressure at each. As someone said here a few days back, how come it works for marinas. They only use the standard garden type hose union bib taps with a double check valve.
Click to expand...
The EA and marina operators seem to have a difference of opinion as to action they need to take to comply with the legislation. Simple double check valves do not comply for Cat 5 polluted waterways. Leave them to fight to out.
 
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