Just in time for the data centers to double our national consumption
You can see why they’re making a lot about water scarcity in the media now.
It’s about time we should start pushing back and saying that some things are a basic human right like air, water, food and energy (certainly at a subsistence level) which should be provided without cost.
I do like the idea of first x number of units are free to all. So essentially that means drinking water at home is free
No no no, the free water is for the data centers. We get the expensive water with stuff floating in it, along with a high-usage fee for using the water while we’re at home in the evenings when the data centers need it most.
Was any of the water hot, or heated at any point? Tsk tsk tsk, that’s a hot water fee.
Could we perhaps explore more reservoirs? There’s loads of urban decay that could be replaced with water storage.
All water companies should be nationalised immediately, water is not a product.
What are we supposed to do when the water companies don’t put any investment into improving the situation. Constant leaks, a steady flow of new houses being built but no increase in our capacity to store water.
What choice will we have under these rules when the companues charging us are able to manufacture scarcity through their inaction.
Every necessity of life, including economic and educational necessities like transport and data, should be publicly owned and provided free or as cheaply as practicable. Anything else is a one-way ticket to absurdity.
What about surge discounts during leaks?
Data centres getting surge pricing ja?
Wouldn’t mind if we got cheaper non surge rates tbh. Looking at my garden or allotment and hosepipe bans I was thinking what if I was to store up water in an IBC tank before a drought.
So far I haven’t really done anything to reduce water usage, it just doesn’t seem worth the cost. Underground rainwater tank, even if I dig the hole for it myself, would require filling and emptying 1000s of times to pay for its self compared to just using a hose pipe. Or if there is a pipe ban, filling a wheelbarrow a few times.
Garden came with water butts so I do use those. But looking at how little they hold for their price I can’t see how it is worth it. Even the large ones hold less than £1 worth of water. Plus a house uses as that much water each day normally anyway?
Grey water collection could be interesting. I have loads of grey water waste during drought that could potentially be useful. Can that safely be dumped straight onto the garden though? Most things I find suggest not to, shame as it would be fairly easy. Even just plonk a gutter under the pipe exist points from the house and direct it to the garden.
We got our water butts free on local Facebook groups or marketplace. You’re right though, they don’t store a lot. Our outside tap is somehow unmetered so i mostly use that anyway. The water butts ran out weeks ago. No hosepipe bans here (north west).
Yeah there are no hose pipe bans where I live too, although I am somewhat aware of trying not to use it excessively too.
My garden the grass can die and will come back when it rains so that gets nothing normally. In plant beds its all drought tolerant stuff like rosemary, its doing OK though I am giving them a little water once or twice a month.
Saving the water butts for plant pots and newly planted cuttings. For that they seem to be lasting OK. We are expecting rain this week at least. I suspect things like rosemary would have grown a lot more if I watered them more, but they will survive just fine without too.
Grey water collecting feels like a more sensible option to look into. Most households use over 100L of water a day, only the toilet being water you don’t want to reuse could give you a small water butt per day in water. If I do I hope it can be a DIY project.
Can that safely be dumped straight onto the garden though?
As long as you’re not using antibacterial agents, bleach or things with parabens and phosphate you’ll mostly be fine.
Its pretty minor to switch to “biodegradable” soaps if you don’t use them already and then you can just dump your bathwater straight onto the garden no problem.
I had always heard you shouldn’t eat stuff watered with grey water
Looked at a few sites talking about using bathwater on the garden and as long as you’re watering the roots and not edible leaves directly it’s perfectly fine. You also want to use the water immediately rather than storing it.
https://gardeningbeyond.com/can-i-water-my-garden-with-bath-water/
https://gardenadvice.co.uk/gardening-tips/bath-water-for-watering-my-garden-plants-and-vegetables/
Ahh right, that makes sense. For my garden it would be bay, sage and rosemary.
Immediate use could actually be achieved by piping it straight to the grass next to the garden beds and let the roots get it through the soil. Probably through a filter somewhere along the line.
I also looked at this recently as I thought that soap would be harmful to plants and/or microbes and the Royal Horticultural Society has done some investigation of their own into the use of greywater, and their advice is “plants can be watered with shower, bath, kitchen and washing machine water (from rinse cycles)”, finding that “soil and potting composts are effective at filtering out” the soap/detergent.
I’m just echoing @Denjin@feddit.uk with the RHS link, and I didn’t read the articles he linked but it wouldn’t surprise me if the RHS guidance is the source of those.
I wonder if I would need a pump or could connect a tube directly to the bathroom tap/shower outlet at the side of my house. It is only elevated slightly above the ground, it looks like the path is flat but there could be a slight gradient either way that I am unaware of. Kitchen outlet for the washing machine and kitchen sink is a bit higher. But I think the bathroom water is a cleaner source.
Either way its something to look into trying. Pipe probably doesn’t cost much to experiment with and can be removed when not needed. Worst thing that would happen is the shower fills up and you notice that pretty quickly, then just take it off.
First linked site recommends a filter to grab hair and any solid bits of dirt or soap etc. I plan on adding an irrigation system for the future in my garden (mostly fruiting plants in the summer and brassicas over winter) that would be fed first from bath water, then water butts, then tap depending on what’s available.
Given how likely it seems that we’ll see significant shortages of water within the next few years, rainwater storage seems like a decent idea to me, £3000 for 5000 litres doesn’t make sense in pure financial terms but if it means that or not having any water at all, it seems like a pretty small price to pay.
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Shortages to the point of restrictions though surely, rather than having no water left at all. Where I live hasn’t even had hosepipe bans yet, and we are getting a new reservoir soon.
If I was planning for no water at all I would look at getting a hand pumped RO filter for filtering sea water. I could distill it but that takes far more energy. Have wondered about the RO filter anyway for cooking by the beach but there are usually public taps close enough. Would allow going to more remote parts of the beach though.
We’ve had one of the top 10 wettest winters on record and reservoirs in my region are down to about 50%, and there’s no new reservoir construction or expansion even in the planning phase.
I don’t think it’s a huge leap to think about the possibility of reservoirs running dry if we have a couple more dry summers and follow that with even an average winter supplies could be dangerously low.
Anything to keep the gravy train rolling.
The f they will.
