Sooo much pooping

[Treekeeper]

Unbelievably United uselesstilities have said they may have to impose a hosepipe ban in the North West!!

 

So the floods never happened then? Why do they not have enough run off rervoirs to store surplus water?

 

As chicken keepers are we immune or is that only for commercial keepers?

[Lydia]

Last time there was a ban down here we phoned our authority and they said to restrict use as much as possible but, for the purposes of cleaning out eglus etc, use of a hosepipe was OK. Might be different depending on your authority though so worth checking.

[WarrensWorld]

You couldn't make it up could you. Mind you if we had a hosepipe ban here, then I know the ordure had really hit the fan.

[The Dogmother]

Remind me again.... the papers yesterday were full of it having been the driest winter yet, but does anyone else remember the masses of snow that we had, or was it just my imagination?

 

The water table was so high here all winter that my garden was like a bog

[chickencam]

We will really struggle with our allotment if we get a ban, we have a 200m walk to the nearest tap and although we have 3 old baths and 2 water butts they don't go far if we get no rain. We only use the hosepipe if we really need to, but I would hate not to be able to.

 

We would be ok at home with only a small garden and greenhouse, but even there the hosepipe is so useful.

[patsylabrador]

It never makes sense to me. I remember it being a very wet winter and we live on an island surrounded by water. With all our technology you'd think we could have found some way to use it other than dumping rubbish in it.

[Tiggy]

I never understand it either, maybe some very clever person on here can explain. I dont know why all new bulidings do not have rain water collection systems for toilets & washing machines outside taps etc, paticularly public buildings like schools & hospitals, water butts should be compulsory. neither of my neighbours have one & it drives me mad watching them water their pristine lawns & hanging baskets with the hose. They dont have water meters either

 

the chap that mows my lawns always laughs, its more like a meadow really there are so many other plants in there, but when the neighbours lawns are stating to suffer in the summer mines still lovely and green - moss maybe but still green

[SarahJo]

amazes me that a temperate climate results in this, anyone would think we were in the Middle East, oh but then again they are soooooo much better at managing the resources

 

Cannot remember where I heard/saw this - but I am going to start emptying the washing up bowl into the watering can, also any rinsed items will now have water recycled onto the garden. Oh, and if you are running water "in" to get hot from the tap, you can collect this pre-flow too

 

Helps a little - but won't make up for when you need to use a hose

[Jools]

I think Treekeeper is referring to the situation in the north west. The catchment area for a lot of the towns and cities in the north west is the Lake District and we've had the driest winter in 80 years. We had the deluge in November 2009 when it was absolutely impossible to capture the volume of water that fell in such a short space of time. Then we had four weeks of freezing weather - a normal amount of snow but no rain. Snow takes up a lot more space that rain because of the air content, so it may look like a huge volume of water, but in reality it isn't. Since then we've had some rain, but certainly nothing like a normal winter.

 

The water level in our reservoirs (Ennerdale, Haweswater, Thirlmere) is dramatically lower than it should be and we're only at the beginning of summer, not the end. The rivers aren't running dry just yet, but the flow is very much reduced. I honestly don't think anyone can blame United Utilities for a lack of winter rain in the wettest area of the country. I'm perhaps in the minority in commending them for reacting to ration water now, before it's too late. Now if you mean leaking water pipes, educating people to use water wisely, etc etc, then I'm with you.

 

As an aside, we're on a private water supply, as are most who live off the beaten track, and our supply stopped overflowing the tank last weekend, so we've been rationing ever since. We're bathing in a couple of inches of water and saving it to flush the loo and water the plants. The washing up water goes on the garden too, saving our precious fresh water for drinking - us, the dogs and of course the chickens. I took a couple of loads of washing for an hour's drive this morning, to and from the launderette. I'm honestly hoping that my hanging it out on the line to dry this afternoon will trigger a torrential downpour, but none is actually forecast for at least a couple of weeks. So please excuse me if I don't have an awful lot of sympathy with hosepipe bans.

[WarrensWorld]

I'm just off to hose down the poly-tunnel, and the veggies.....

[Jools]

[Old Speckled Hen]

I think Treekeeper is referring to the situation in the north west. The catchment area for a lot of the towns and cities in the north west is the Lake District and we've had the driest winter in 80 years.

 

The water level in our reservoirs (Ennerdale, Haweswater, Thirlmere) is dramatically lower than it should be and we're only at the beginning of summer, not the end.

It doesn't help that a lot of the water from Thirlmere goes to Manchester. Perhaps we should turn off the tap and let them have our hosepipe ban

[chickenNutter]

Ok chaps, I work for the Environment Agency and we licence Unitied Utilities to abstract water from rivers lakes and under the ground for the purposes of supplying it for public use. To officially declare a drought situation UU must apply to us to take water out of rivers above the level we would normally allow, for fear of adversely affecting the environment. The Environment Agency has to balance this against the public interest/need for water.

 

In the North West, and unlike many other regions, we gain our public water supply from over ground sources - rivers, natural lakes and man-made reservoirs, rather than groundwater where water that has soaked in and is stored in porous rocks or 'aquifers'. Despite the very heavy winter rain/snow we had, which, when it melted, flowed straight out to sea, we now have very low supplies as we have had the four or five driest months since 1929. This, together with high seasonal temperatures which increases evaporation means that reservoir levels are extremely low.

 

I am afraid that a hosepipe ban is now virtually inevitable in the North west and will affect Cumbria, Lancashire as well as Greater Manchester, so we all need to save water by showering rather than bathing, never leaving a tap running when you wash your hands or clean your teeth, and where possible use grey water (used washing up water, bath or shower water) for watering your garden. It is a bit bonkers when you think about it that we use high quality cleansed drinking water for putting on our gardens, cars and eglus!)

 

I anticipate the ban to come in in the first couple of days of July, so I have already watered my garden plants at the roots and then put 3 inches of bark mulch around them to preserve moisture. I am also investigating ways of diverting into a water butt the drainpipe that takes away water from the shower and bath on the outside of the house. Plants can withstand reasonably high phosphate levels, so chucking your used washing up bowl water onto the garden wont hurt them too much at all.

[Treekeeper]

So why was there a UU van at the side of the A59 with a standpipe connected allowing hundreds of gallons of water to flow down the road? My buildings have rainwater harvesters and we use it for the loos etc so I will be trying it in my own house. As for commending UU nah they need to get their infrastructure in order before they get any praise from me. Oh and I am on a water meter

[Christian]

Thanks for explaining that Chickennutter Interesting to know.

 

It does seem ridiculous that we are running out of water, but guess if there isn't enough, we have to do without. Could be worse - stand pipes in the streets......!

[Old Speckled Hen]

We have a ban from Friday and oddly enough it poured all night

[The Dogmother]

No ban here yet, local reservoir looked full last night when I walked around it. It looks like it might rain too.

[SarahJo]

Cheshire will implement a ban in the next couple of days. It has only rained today for about 2hrs. Steady rain - and certainly not enough to top up the reservoirs. Its now brightening up again

 

OH and I discussed this last night - as some residents near by have scarified their lawns and now have sprinklers on twice a day - IMO totally unecessary, could have done it in the autumn.

[craftyhunnypie]

We all need those mobile water carrier thingys from the Omlet shop! H2Go or something! Daft hosepipe ban - was chucking it down this morning!

 

Emma.x

[Treekeeper]

As I drove to work today through the flooded roads listening to the news of the hosepipe ban on the radio I just wondered why the environment agency and the utilities companies haven't made any arrangements during the recent floods to create extra water reservoirs after all is global warming a figment of my imagination or has it been drummed into us for years. Ah so cynical for one so young LOL

[Treekeeper]

My OH rang UU today and they said chook cleaning and watering is exempt but please use water wisely. So that's OK then,at least I won't have arms like an orangutan from carrying loads of buckets down my long garden

[abwsco]

My boss was telling me today about all the reservoirs we have here in the NW that are unused

[chickenanne]

Where I am it's been incredibly dry for the last few months, and it will take more than a week or so of rain to get things to the normal level. Ground is so dry, even if reservoirs look full after rain they tend to drain out pretty fast too.

My Dad has a private water supply and is really stressing about it, though his has never dried up and I doubt that it will. On Mull there are folk with holiday cottages who've had to cancel bookings as they don't reckon they can be sure of having proper water supplies. It does make you more aware of the need to conserve water at least!

[Guest]

I would imagine that flood water would be contaminated with pesticides running off fields and untreated sewage waste, who knows what sort of nasty chemicals could be mixed in it etc? You can bet people would be the first to moan if water that was not safe to drink was used and people started getting ill or dying from it.

 

I personally think a hosepipe ban early in the season is a good thing, it has been uncharacteristically dry this summer and who knows how long this will go on for? We don't even water our grass at all, it goes a bit off colour then recovers after a bit a rain which is a lot less wasteful, but it is my understanding that watering cans can still be used, so there isn't really a problem. Also water butts are so cheap now that there isn't really an excuse for not collecting your own rain water for using in the garden, if everyone took some responsibility and did their bit, the water would go so much further.

 

Prioritising and rationing before it's too late is a good thing and surely it's far better for human health to be able to drink and take a shower, than it is to look out on a wastefully watered grass and garden? I think some rain is forecast over the next few days, but it will take more than a bit of drizzle to top the reservoirs back up so well done that utility company for being cautious.

[Tiggy]

it does seem odd that we are flooded one minute & having a hosepipe ban the next but I dont understand why having a water butt is optional, surely we all have a responsibility to use water wisely. Im sure I saw it somewhere that rain water collection systems can be used to flush toilets & run washing machines so why aren't all new buildings set up this way, particularly public ones like schools & council buildings.