Save Water!

[Famine]

I'm annoyed. Yes, I am pulling my "avatarface".

"Save water!" we're told. Just yesterday, in fact, Scottish Water, one of our "private" water companies (owned by shareholders, bailed out by the taxpayer) urged "customers" to share baths, not to use dishwashers and washing machines regularly, flush only when it's a poo and so on, in an effort to "use water wisely"... Many parts of the UK are covered by a hosepipe ban - meaning we can't wash our cars or water our plants out of a supply-fed hose.

It's funny, because I thought, as a water rates payer, I'd already bought whatever water I used and could do what I like with it.

So I had a little dig.

Turns out that we use about 134,000 litres of water in our house every year. Taking us as an average house (2 people, couple of baths a week each, couple of washing machine loads each week), that means that the population of the UK uses about 6.5 BILLION litres of water a year.

Wow. Big number. I guess we could do with cutting back a bit.

But hold up a moment - some of it leaks out of the system before it even sees us. OFWAT, the regulatory body for water companies, tells us that in 2003-2004, the various water companies lost, in megalitres:

Anglian Water: 216
Northumbrian Water: 230
Severn Trent: 512
South West Water: 84
Southern Water: 92
Thames Water: 946
United Utilities: 479
Welsh Water: 231
Wessex Water: 75
Yorkshire Water: 295

Plus a few other smaller companies with smaller losses. All in it's about 3.3 billion litres.

Wow. For every litre I use, half a litre goes to waste.


No, hang on.

That's leakages in megalitres PER DAY...


So, Scottish Water wants my car to be dirty (and thus harm the fuel economy through friction), my garden to die back to desert, our house to smell of wee and B.O. and diphtheria to culture itself in my kitchen, when the reality is that the entire of the UK can be supplied for a year with what the water companies, literally, piss out in just 2 days.


And we have to "use water wisely"?


What in the name of Bob is going on here?

 

[a6m5]

That is interesting. Where I work, I indeed can spot a lot of wastes. We just switched to auto-shutoff lighting like last year.

So, Scottish Water wants my car to be dirty (and thus harm the fuel economy through friction)

👍

 

[FoolKiller]

urged "customers" to share baths,

Is that like taking baths together? That could be fun, but then you would soil the bathwater.

(2 people, couple of baths a week each

I hope that's a joke. If I have yardwork to do I can sometimes have a couple of baths in a day, but I am a pretty sweaty and oily guy.



How does the water company lose so much water? That is crazy.

Is the cutting back required? We had to do this last year and I just watered my gardens half as much. I had to be sneaky because you could be fined. I did just enough to keep them going, but not perfect. Then I just used an automated car wash in my brother's district when I visited him every couple of weeks. I prefer doing it by hand but this worked out fine temporarily.

 

[Pupik]

Athough there hasn't been a drought here in over a decade, as long as I'm paying for my water by the unit, I see no reason why I can't use it for any way I wish.

 

[Scaff]

Anglian Water: 216
Northumbrian Water: 230
Severn Trent: 512
South West Water: 84
Southern Water: 92
Thames Water: 946
United Utilities: 479
Welsh Water: 231
Wessex Water: 75
Yorkshire Water: 295

Thames Water, the worst offender for leaks and my water supplier.

Who despite a woeful record in regard to doing anything about leaks, managed to get a hose-pipe ban in place. Meaning I have to water my plants and wash my car without a hose (and with my garden that takes a bloody long time).

They are also trying to get a full drought order in place.

Guess how happy I am with them.

Grrrr


Scaff

 

[G.T]

We have no hosepipe ban here yet, and they should. Next door keeps her hosepipe on all friggin day every single day of the week. I mean to offence to the near-90-year-old, but shes OVER watering the garden. I guess this doesn't compare at all to the amount of water these companies are wasting.

Then, I heard a few weeks back, some of our water supplies here were transferred over to some other company where they are running very short. God knows how much water they wasted in the process.

 

[GM]

I'm annoyed. Yes, I am pulling my "avatarface".

That got me scared

I do save as much as I can, I use rainwater from out tank to water plants and turn the tap of when I'm brushing my teeth (not that it does much).

Thats all put to waste when my sister turns on the ol' hose pipe and fills up her paddling pool that she will not go in.

 

[Mark T]

Crazy statistics there. I haven't read anything like that in the papers. Maybe you should send that to The Sun newspaper. Might get some pounds notes for your effort.

 

[Swift]

Man, that's seriously weak. Reminds me of the amount of money wasted in congress by our politians stateside.

 

[exigeracer]

This is very similar to what I heard on the news the other day. Eastern North America is under a fairly large heat wave, with massive humidity and high temperatures. The news reports kept saying "With temperatures in the mid-30s, citizens are asking when will Mother Nature turn off the oven!?!"

Well you bratty little complaining citizens, when you elect a government who doesn't support any international efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses, the PLANET GETS WARMER! It's three whole degrees warmer this year, and it's not like it will be getting any colder in the coming years.

Want Mother Nature to turn off her oven?! STOP ****ING HER UP!

 

[Famine]

This is very similar to what I heard on the news the other day. Eastern North America is under a fairly large heat wave, with massive humidity and high temperatures. The news reports kept saying "With temperatures in the mid-30s, citizens are asking when will Mother Nature turn off the oven!?!"

Well you bratty little complaining citizens, when you elect a government who doesn't support any international efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses, the PLANET GETS WARMER! It's three whole degrees warmer this year, and it's not like it will be getting any colder in the coming years.

Want Mother Nature to turn off her oven?! STOP ****ING HER UP!

*rocks back and forth*

 

[FoolKiller]

This is very similar to what I heard on the news the other day. Eastern North America is under a fairly large heat wave, with massive humidity and high temperatures. The news reports kept saying "With temperatures in the mid-30s, citizens are asking when will Mother Nature turn off the oven!?!"

Well you bratty little complaining citizens, when you elect a government who doesn't support any international efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses, the PLANET GETS WARMER! It's three whole degrees warmer this year, and it's not like it will be getting any colder in the coming years.

Want Mother Nature to turn off her oven?! STOP ****ING HER UP!

Wow, and you said that off-topic in Famine's thread, who, by the way, is not in the US, so your comment is misdirected anyway.

Before the argument starts I request you read and debate this here. It has been going on for a good while in there and it will be on topic.

 

[Sphinx]

that means that the population of the UK uses about 6.5 BILLION litres of water a year.

3.5 BILLION CUBIC METRES of domestic water should be closer to the mark and is about 20% of all water used each year in the UK. Around 1.8 MILLION CUBIC Metres of water is lost through leakage each year.

It is estimated that leakage will be reduced by 35% by 2010. It peaked in 1994/95.

 

[Kylehnat]

This is very similar to what I heard on the news the other day. Eastern North America is under a fairly large heat wave, with massive humidity and high temperatures. The news reports kept saying "With temperatures in the mid-30s, citizens are asking when will Mother Nature turn off the oven!?!"

Well you bratty little complaining citizens, when you elect a government who doesn't support any international efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses, the PLANET GETS WARMER! It's three whole degrees warmer this year, and it's not like it will be getting any colder in the coming years.

Want Mother Nature to turn off her oven?! STOP ****ING HER UP!

The current U.S. heat wave has nothing to do with global warming. This happens every single year, and has happened for as long as I can remember. People just like to complain about it for some reason. For argument's sake, let's say that global warming has added 10 degrees F to our temperatures. Now, instead of being 105 degrees, it's only 95. People would still complain, I guarantee it, and it would still be news.

Now, the water "shortages". When I was little, they came to our school and told us 6-year-olds that unless we cut back on water usage, we'd all die from drought and famine (no, not that Famine). I was always a little skeptical of these doomsayers, for even at that young an age, I realized that our water supply was replenished each winter from rain and snowpack. Indeed, here we are 15 years later, and here's a quote from a Seattle Public Utilities report: "Our latest supply estimates and computer models show that we can meet the needs of our region through 2060..." Also, with all of the rain we got this year, there is no threat of any sort of water crunch this summer, as there has been in the last couple of years.

Okay, so that's fine for my area, but what about others? I have many relatives down in Southern California, where water is not so plentiful. Again, I always hear "save water, or everyone is going to die!!!", yet nobody I know of has drastically cut their water usage, and everything seems to be fine down there, year after year. I suppose they could be slowly headed towards catastrophe, but before it ever comes to that, I bet the state will tell the city of Palm Springs to stop watering its sidewalk shrubbery every 15 minutes.

 

[exigeracer]

It was not my intention to start up a debate about this. I am sorry if this is how it seemed.

I was pointing out how people complain about the heat when they are part of the cause of it (maybe not in this exact case). The same as when Famine's water company tells people to stop wasting water when they are the ones who are doing a good share of wasting.

Please understand me.

 

[Danoff]

I was pointing out how people complain about the heat when they are part of the cause of it (maybe not in this exact case).

Hmmm... I'd like to see your data.

 

[Famine]

3.5 BILLION CUBIC METRES of domestic water should be closer to the mark and is about 20% of all water used each year in the UK. Around 1.8 MILLION CUBIC Metres of water is lost through leakage each year.

It is estimated that leakage will be reduced by 35% by 2010. It peaked in 1994/95.

Interesting - I won't refute your figures, as mine are basically fag-packet (zeroes go missing easily). But even so, it means that for every 2 litres I use, 1 litre mysteriously vanishes.

Imagine that being applied to petrol. Or your pint.

 

[exigeracer]

Hmmm... I'd like to see your data.

In the light of new evidence and taking into account the remaining uncertainties, most of the observed warming over the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations

some visuals by the UK Meteorological Office.

 

[Seanman]

Do you realize that that is an increase of 1 degrees Celsius over ONE AND A HALF CENTURIES? Hardly anything to raise hell over.

 

[exigeracer]

I didn't raise hell but I'm not going to be selfish about the problem, like the rest of the first-world.

 

[Danoff]

some visuals by the UK Meteorological Office.

Wow, short timescale. You can't see any global trends at that timescale. Why don't you have a look at the Global Warming thread. I believe we've covered this chart already.

BTW - the chart you showed doesn't show correlation with human behavior.

 

[vladimir]

Do you realize that that is an increase of 1 degrees Celsius over ONE AND A HALF CENTURIES? Hardly anything to raise hell over.

one degree might not sound like much as for what you personally feel, but on a global scale, for example taking in regard the resulting melting of ice caps and glaciers, a change of one degree can be quite dramatic.

the chart also reveals that the temperature is now rising twice as fast as it did a hundred years ago.

 

[Omnis]

This is very similar to what I heard on the news the other day. Eastern North America is under a fairly large heat wave, with massive humidity and high temperatures. The news reports kept saying "With temperatures in the mid-30s, citizens are asking when will Mother Nature turn off the oven!?!"

Well you bratty little complaining citizens, when you elect a government who doesn't support any international efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses, the PLANET GETS WARMER! It's three whole degrees warmer this year, and it's not like it will be getting any colder in the coming years.

Want Mother Nature to turn off her oven?! STOP ****ING HER UP!

Florida's had the same summer weather for decades. Mother Nature gives up 118 degree weather, humidity that, god forbid, would turn to air into water at a one-point increase, and the afternoon deluge of visibility-devoid rainfall. You're just hearing about the heatwave now because the news decided to broadcast it. I'd rather New York have a little sweat on their brow and some moisture built up between the crotch than for the eastern seaboard to get pounded with hurricanes again. And, as random as that was, it's still the truth.

 

[Famine]

Scare-mongering half-science thread here. I'm sorry, I mean "Global Warming" thread here - though I'd have a read through it first, exigeracer.

 

[Specialized]

I'm annoyed. Yes, I am pulling my "avatarface".

"Save water!" we're told. Just yesterday, in fact, Scottish Water, one of our "private" water companies (owned by shareholders, bailed out by the taxpayer) urged "customers" to share baths, not to use dishwashers and washing machines regularly, .........

.......Snip............

...........So, Scottish Water wants my car to be dirty (and thus harm the fuel economy through friction), my garden to die back to desert, our house to smell of wee and B.O. and diphtheria to culture itself in my kitchen, when the reality is that the entire of the UK can be supplied for a year with what the water companies, literally, piss out in just 2 days.


And we have to "use water wisely"?


What in the name of Bob is going on here?

Living pretty close to you Famine i understand what you mean. All we get on the news are reports about Bewl Water being at its lowest water level ever and the natural underground reservoirs being at an all time low. Not to mention all my pesky neighbours peeking out their windows in the hope they spot somebody using a hosepipe and call the authorities!!!

Well with all that said.................wanna come round for a dip in my swimmingpool?

Spec....

 

[Swift]

That was pretty good Spec.

 

[Duke]

some visuals by the UK Meteorological Office.

Also, if you take that graph back another 40 years or so, you'll see that the starting point in the 1820s was about ZERO, not -0.4 as it is when you conveniently crop it off at 1860. So that makes the temperature rise a little over half what it appears to be if you crop it at the lowest point for maximum exaggeration.

And AFAIK the industrial revolution wasn't really in full swing in 1820... certainly not at the level it was in 1860.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

The thing that puzzles me is, where does all the leaked water go? Surely it's just straight back to the water table, from whence it can be removed via boreholes?

Anyway, it's just another symptom of the general awfulness of the UK. Whilst honest working citizens are trying to pay their way, every organisation out there is trying to shaft them. What's the ****ing point in trying to be a decent person any more? Just wash your car Famine, and claim you're in some sort of social minority (ooh, better yet, say you did it because you have OCD, then it's OK, because it's an illness). No-one will challenge you then.

[/defeatist cynical rant]

I think that water should be charged on a per-unit-used basis. Then people can choose how much they wish to consume. OFWAT is about the most useless government organisation ever (which - given that OFCOM also exists - is fantastic). They really need to be investigating the proportion of profits returned to shareholders against the proportion used for long term investment projects.

 

[Dave A]

How does the water company lose so much water? That is crazy.

Because they can't be arsed repairing and maintaining the pipes.

 

[Sphinx]

And when they do get around to repairing the 300.000km or so water network, we moan about being held up at road works when going to work and the loss of water supply at home whilst the work is being carried out.

Hands up those whom have lost their water supply due to low water levels in the UK? The only time I can remember was in the summer of 1976.