Hows your water works then?

[Alan Cantwell]

Have all you southern gentry not got any holes dug to save water? why, in this day and age, do we have water shortages?? they dont have them in kuwait, we have just finished an order for filtration impellors for kuwaity de-salination plants, seeing as we are SURROUNDED by water, why do we not have these? every darned SHIP has them,

[Rusty C]

Plenty water up here with us

[John Privett]

I guess cost must be the main reason. Probably not so much of an issue in Kuwait where they can just sell off a bit more oil to pay for it - or divert the oil to fuel the desalination plants. Nor on board ship where there is no alternative supply.

How much difference would it make to our water bills? I don't know. But desaliantion plants are said to produce water at a cost of around 30p/m3. I currently pay about 90p/m3 for my water that comes out of boreholes. Presumably that means £1.20/m3 if all our water was desalinated.

Then the water has to be transported. Sutton and East Surrey's water pipes don't go anywhere near the sea, so how does it get to my tap without first of all investment in new pipelines and even with the pipes in place the added cost of pumping all the water nearly 50 miles inland.

If, presumably like Kuwait, we had no other source of water then desalination would be essential. As it is, we just about get by most of the time without it.

[PatMc]

The waste product from the desalinisation plants also has to be disposed of which wouldn't be good news for the marine environment.

Edited By PatMc on 13/03/2012 21:30:25

[Myron Beaumont]

All our water is free and comes out of springs in N Yorks dales It tastes like water as well .We have a piped system that goes to an 8000 gallon tank for emergencies but we have it piped & pressurised into the farmhouse to supply our needs . Never dried up within living memory of several generations .Neither has the joining of two rivers at the bottom of the garden .Derwent and backbeck .Tastes lovely with a drop or two of whiskey.Locals come most days with their containers to "fill up"

Myron YO13 self sufficiency dept

Two more goats born today -Loads of lambs next week ! Mr Fox got a chicken in broad daylight but we are getting some Muskovy duck eggs tomorrow to incubate ' If they see me first they will think I'm their Mum

Flying partners ??

Edited By Myron Beaumont on 13/03/2012 22:19:43

[andy watson]

I heard on the radio that no new resevoirs have been dug since the 1970s. Not sure if that was nationally or in the SE, but stupid either way. No surprise there are shortages when the population has risen, but the reserves stay the same.

[Devon Flyer]

Still plenty of water on Exmoor - tastes good too.

[Alan Cantwell]

did not know how the desalination plants worked, interesting, i was told not long ago, that the next war in this world will be waged over water, not oil, hope not

[Steve Hargreaves - Moderator]

Part of the problem is overpopulation in the South East......theres just too many people settling down there.....They say that parts of Essex have less rainfall than North Africa......thats because it all falls on us lot in the West of the country....

Maybe we need to dig some East/West canals so we can "export" our rainfall.......

[Richard Wood]

Back in the drought in '95 there was a huge operation to transport water

by road in tankers from Northumbrian Water southwards.

No doubt it'll be starting again soon.

[Frank Skilbeck]

Thames water have a desalination plant just east of London, but they are very energy intensive.

Middle East countries with oil reserves can use the associated gas for power generation to run these plants.

They also looked at exporting water from wales to the South East a few years back, but it would have been too costly.

[BB]

Posted by Alan 4 on 13/03/2012 19:58:30:

Have all you southern gentry not got any holes dug to save water? why, in this day and age, do we have water shortages?? they dont have them in kuwait, we have just finished an order for filtration impellors for kuwaity de-salination plants, seeing as we are SURROUNDED by water, why do we not have these? every darned SHIP has them,

Have you not yet realised that this country only fights fires after theres nothing left to save. Saves water dontcha know

Strange ain't it.  Old 'Red Ken' wanted to build a de-salination plant in the Thames Estuary.  Ooooh too exspensive says Parliament.  'Bonking Boris' on the other hand is being given the green light for a new airport.  Guess where ?  Yep the same place !  Go figure !

Edited By BB on 14/03/2012 10:42:06

[Lee Damms]

Interesting one this, there was talk of a national pipeline somewhere in the past which i think does exist in parts. Now once the water authorities were in private hands they seem to favour new reservoirs because as capital projects they can pass the cost directly to you. This is why some authorties see this as the easy option and have tried to build them in the most stupid places and have met with opposition. Anyone for nationalisation of water or do we leave control to some of our other european nations. I suspect this should create a bit more discussion.

Lee

[Jonnor]

Countrywide UK leaks waste millions of gallons of expensive water a day. Successive governments have thought it's a good idea to let foreigners buy our essential utilities - Wessex Water is owned by a company in Kuala Lumpur - Bristol Water's partly owned by a Spanish company.

I don't imagine foreign firms want to spend much of their profits on repairs.

[Erfolg]

Andy

You mentioned that no new reservoirs have been constructed after Keelder.

Yet the real scandal is that some water companies have sold many smaller reservoirs, to private bodies. Thus deliberately reducing capacity.

Also apparently they have also cut back on maintenance, resulting in heavy silting in some reservoirs.

All the points of rising populations are also salient.

The final irony is that we have to pay more for less. I guess the water companies want us to pay for tap water as if it were bottled, saving them having to have any substantial supplies, perhaps a single small reservoir for a region, would then be sufficient, conserving natural resources, whilst increasing their modest profit.

Whoa there, am I not a shareholder for United Utilities,, yep the policy and strategy work for me on reflection

[Devon Flyer]

Will they still be able to use water cannons on rioters, if a drought has been declared?

[buster prop]

What worries me about this are plans to build thousands of houses in the east & southeast. The other night, on Anglia news, they said that there was a housing shortage in the east and that 30,000 new homes per year were needed. It seems that politicians want to sweep aside planning objections from NIMBYs (like me) to boost the economy and create jobs. It might just succeed but these 30,000 houses per year all need water and they'll have powershowers and dishwashers so where will the water come from? This is short termism at its worst, solve todays problems and create big ones for tomorrow. Apparently East Anglia has had less rain than Morocco, if this continues there will be severe shortages even with the present population. Worrying that planners can be so short sighted.

[SR 71]

Come and live in Cyprus, hardly stopped raining since christmas, dams are all overflowing

[PatMc]

Posted by buster prop on 14/03/2012 18:35:47:

Apparently East Anglia has had less rain than Morocco, if this continues there will be severe shortages even with the present population.

...but Morocco is 23 times the area with about 16 times the population.

[buster prop]

I expect people in Morocco use water a lot more sparingly than we do, bet they don't all have dishwashers and water their lawns with hosepipes. Actually I don't know where Morocco gets its water from, I was just quoting someone on TV when nearly empty reservoirs were being shown. My point was that promoting mass house building in a region already short of water seems short sighted. I feel sorry for homeless people but wouldn't politicians be wiser to encourage job creation and housebuilding in other parts of the country?

[Reno Racer]

No issues out here in the mid west USA (Oklahoma), we have rain for about 10 days a year, the rest of the time its a John Wayne cowboy film style hot brown prairie desert. On base and in the local town, people wash cars, waste water, use dishwashers and generally consume more than they need in the good US way! Never have any shortage issues and the water is pumped 1000s of miles from other states. We even export water to Texas, we have so much.

Back home in Wiltshire, we have a drought and water restrictions; it rains alot and we are surrounded by the sea?

With more people wanting proper sea salt, surely some of the waste from desalination processing can be reclaimed and sold on; Maldon Sea Salt could have competition from Bristol sea Salt! (although i suspect brown sea salt might not be that appealling)

[flytilbroke]

I can think back. The Angling Magazines lauding the opening of Massive DRAINS over a heck of a lot of England. They certainly lowered the the amount of retained water naturally being absorbed by the ground. They also reduced the water ON the ground. Block the Drains and help save the scarce rainfall from heading straight to the sea.

[Erfolg]

Flytilbroke

Allthough Northen England may not receiev as much rain in winter as Scotland, we receive plenty.

[Allan Bowker]

Don't think that water companies can charge what they like, charges are set by the UK government regulator (OFWAT). If you think that your water bill is too high you should pressure the gov/regulator. Some water companies are managed better than others, Yorkshire Water as an example being one of the industry leaders.

As for a national water network, some water companies welcome this and already have infrastructure in place, however other companies are against it. It will take a directive from the government/regulator to get this operational. Water is also heavy and expensive to pump/transport, therefore a below surface pipe/canal network would work best.

Considering how essential water is to our every day lives I think it is a cheap commodity and taken for granted by the general population. My water works out to about £1.20 a day, my daily loaf of bread costs more than that now and takes less effort and resources to make.

[Erfolg]

Alan

We have all seen that the Regulator, for what ever industry, is subjected to many political pressures. Some have been blatant political appointments, such as one person to the Charity Commission, which was well reported in some newspapers. The regulator has to contend with a well organised and funded lobbyists, who present the position of the regulated, in the corner for the consumer is a group of less well funded organisations.

As we have seen, money talks, to all the parties, and the one party who receives less, bleats, more about the unfairness of the situation, that is until their noses can get into the trough.

As to is the service, is it value for money, it probably is. Then again as a shareholder, I am also happy to see my dividend and share price increase, even if it means increased prices for others, for getting less.