Hosepipe ban

[C08]

As the boat is bright green after a winter up a Dartmouth creek I booked 3 days on Darthaven Marina only to find a hosepipe ban from that day. Two days hauling buckets of water to scrub everywhere was good exercise-which I did not really need. Come back pressure washers and all is forgiven!

 

[Wansworth]

As the boat is bright green after a winter up a Dartmouth creek I booked 3 days on Darthaven Marina only to find a hosepipe ban from that day. Two days hauling buckets of water to scrub everywhere was good exercise-which I did not really need. Come back pressure washers and all is forgiven!

Can you not use seawater through a pressure washer,tied up to the pontoon then afew buckets of fresh to rinse?

 

[Boater Sam]

The whole idea of hosepipe ban is to reduce water usage. You sloshing buckets of fresh drinking water to wash a boat is very selfish and not public spirited at all.

 

[bignick]

I’m surprised that there is a hosepipe ban in place. There has been no shortage of water falling from the sky!
For Sam’s benefit, it would appear that Dart Harbour authority are requesting people to use buckets of fresh water to clean their boats…
LNTM 12-23 Hosepipe Ban - Dart Harbour.

 

[Boater Sam]

I’m surprised that there is a hosepipe ban in place. There has been no shortage of water falling from the sky!
For Sam’s benefit, it would appear that Dart Harbour authority are requesting people to use buckets of fresh water to clean their boats…
LNTM 12-23 Hosepipe Ban - Dart Harbour.

So, I think my summation is still correct but that the Dart harbour authority are complicit in the wasting of precious water resources.

 

[[2574]]

I’m surprised that there is a hosepipe ban in place. There has been no shortage of water falling from the sky!

Current storage levels at 4/5ths capacity:

South West Water

There‘s not enough public visibility of this issue, especially for tourists, it should be in the local weather slot on TV every night.

I live right by the Tamar and true enough it has been in full flow on numerous occasions this spring. I’m told by a SWW man that this water cannot be directed to the reservoirs as it’s too dirty, indeed the Tamar does run red/brown when angry. The reservoirs rely on much small local watercourses and rainfall, it takes a while to replenish a reservoir after a summer like last year.

But the leaks are massively annoying..

 

[James_Calvert]

Current storage levels at 4/5ths capacity:

South West Water

There‘s not enough public visibility of this issue, especially for tourists, it should be in the local weather slot on TV every night...

But the leaks are massively annoying..

It's on Spotlight SW very frequently. Do you watch the commercial one instead?

Also agree on leaks. There was one gushing away for weeks in E Charleton.

 

[C08]

Can you not use seawater through a pressure washer,tied up to the pontoon then afew buckets of fresh to rinse?

Most pressure washers need a pressure feed unfortunately.

 

[[2574]]

It's on Spotlight SW very frequently. Do you watch the commercial one instead?

Also agree on leaks. There was one gushing away for weeks in E Charleton.

I confess that I rarely see Spotlight but haven’t noticed reservoir talk on the rare occasion that I do see it. Pleased to read that it is a reported item. My TV for some reason thinks I’m in Birmingham for all ITV media!

 

[blush2]

Only usually wash my car twice a year or less if it's done by the garage as part of a service. Washed it about a month ago. As soon as the hosepipe ban was announced the local seagulls and other feathered beasts have been using it for target practice! Next to the Dart - is that significant?

 

[[2574]]

Only usually wash my car twice a year or less if it's done by the garage as part of a service. Washed it about a month ago. As soon as the hosepipe ban was announced the local seagulls and other feathered beasts have been using it for target practice! Next to the Dart - is that significant?

My car, being parked in Scotland most of the summer, gets a free rinse pretty much most days…..

 

[penberth3]

I’m surprised that there is a hosepipe ban in place. There has been no shortage of water falling from the sky!
For Sam’s benefit, it would appear that Dart Harbour authority are requesting people to use buckets of fresh water to clean their boats…
LNTM 12-23 Hosepipe Ban - Dart Harbour.

Problem is we remember recent downpours, we forget it's been a very dry winter season. Ground water and reservoirs haven't recovered, and it's nearly summer.

 

[billyfish]

If only we still had public water companies, and transport, and phone , and lecy. No I'm not to go on....

 

[bignick]

It’s obviously very regional. Wessex Water reservoirs apparently are at 100% capacity.

https://assets.publishing.service.g.../Wessex_Water_Situation_Report_March_2023.pdf

Although apparently we (in Dorset) only get 20% of our water from reservoirs and the rest comes from groundwater, which I didn’t know before.

 

[bendyone]

Plymouth Marina info

Dear Berth Holder,
South West Water will be introducing a Temporary Use Ban (know as a hosepipe ban) in parts of Devon from 25th April 2023.
For clarity the ban applies to household customers, businesses are exempt. These exemptions are not set by water companies, they are in place by the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.
Though the ban does not apply, we ask you use water wisely whilst on the Marina as we all have a part to play in conserving water this summer.
Warm regards
The Marina Team

 

[penberth3]

If only we still had public water companies, and transport, and phone , and lecy. No I'm not to go on....

No don't go on, because nationalised utilities and transport were far from perfect.

 

[Sandy]

Problem is we remember recent downpours, we forget it's been a very dry winter season. Ground water and reservoirs haven't recovered, and it's nearly summer.

Wandering around the fields locally the groundwater is about 0.10 mm under the surface.

Looking at the South West Water website the winter rains are about the same as last year. Either the water company has not been running round catching the water in their bucket, the number of new houses far outweighs the increase in capacity (zero) or they have been using the water to flush sewage into the sea.

 

[LittleSister]

No don't go on, because nationalised utilities and transport were far from perfect.

Public water companies had their faults, certainly, and no doubt would again if water were 'renationalised', but they were introduced because of the chronic failure of private water companies to provide an adequate, continuous and safe supply of water, let alone one at a reasonable cost.

It is experience, rather than political ideology, that leads to around 90% of the world's water supplies being in public ownership.

A famous and highly influential example of the move to public supplies in Britain was the endeavours of Joseph Chamberlain (a Liberal, a successful industrial businessman, and certainly no socialist) as Mayor of Birmingham -

'In November 1873, the Liberal Party swept the municipal elections and Chamberlain was elected mayor of Birmingham. The Conservatives had denounced his Radicalism and called him a "monopoliser and a dictator" while the Liberals had campaigned against their High Church Tory opponents with the slogan "The People above the Priests". The city's municipal administration was notably lax with regards to public works, and many urban dwellers lived in conditions of great poverty. As mayor, Chamberlain promoted many civic improvements, promising the city would be "parked, paved, assized, marketed, gas & watered and 'improved'".[23]

The Birmingham Gas Light and Coke Company and the Birmingham and Staffordshire Gas Light Companywere locked in constant competition, in which the city's streets were continually dug up to lay mains. Chamberlain forcibly purchased the two companies on behalf of the borough for £1,953,050, even offering to purchase the companies himself if the ratepayers refused. In its first year of operations the new municipal gas scheme made a profit of £34,000.

The city's water supply was considered a danger to public health – approximately half of the city's population was dependent on well water, much of which was polluted by sewage. Piped water was only supplied three days per week, compelling the use of well water and water carts for the rest of the week. Deploring the rising death rate from contagious diseases in the poorest parts of the city, in January 1876, Chamberlain forcibly purchased Birmingham's waterworks for a combined sum of £1,350,000, creating Birmingham Corporation Water Department, having declared to a House of Commons Committee that "We have not the slightest intention of making profit...We shall get our profit indirectly in the comfort of the town and in the health of the inhabitants". Despite this noticeable executive action, Chamberlain was mistrustful of central authority and bureaucracy, preferring to give local communities the responsibility to act on their own initiative. . .'
Joseph Chamberlain - Wikipedia

 

[thinwater]

I'd take it as a hint not to scrub. No more guilt.

 

[[2574]]

Wandering around the fields locally the groundwater is about 0.10 mm under the surface.

Looking at the South West Water website the winter rains are about the same as last year. Either the water company has not been running round catching the water in their bucket, the number of new houses far outweighs the increase in capacity (zero) or they have been using the water to flush sewage into the sea.

It was very dry in the first quarter, my field walking was like summer underfoot. No wellies required. March & April have helped the situation.