Thames Water turns off the tap

Thames water is set to infuriate consumers even further by lobbying the government for a change in the law by closing a loophole in the rules and banning allotment holders watering their vegetables.

At the moment, allotment holders are exempt from hose pipe bans because allotments have been classified as public areas.

Thames water, the single largest waster of water in its area appears intent on limiting supply of water that it considers non essential.

Staying on the water theme, a post on the Real Oasis blog suggests that this summer - set to be a scorcher - the South East of the UK will be forced to use stand pipes. I am not sure if this is true because the source of the information is not published in the post.

One little tip on planting that I have always found useful. Plant shrubs and plants close enough so that the sun cannot pitch directly onto the soil. It might mean a bit of thinning as some get to big but it is worth using martyr plants that you know can be moved or wasted.

By ensuring that the soil is not exposed to direct sunlight the evaporation is reduced substantially. A square metre of exposed soil can lose up to 10 litres of water a day through evaporation.

Thames Water website

Comments

[Richard Boyd]

Hi Philip

The info was part of an emergency planning brief (2006) for local authorities throughout the UK, which I managed to *cough* read bits of, whilst in a meeting.

The South is virtually guaranteed to have major problems, as the water companies are still failing to correct major leakages (30% of water is wasted) and have sold off many of the smaller water holding/storage facilities and are bitching about having a "dry" winter.

It's a mad sad world where a country's sells of an essential utility!

I was in Oxford last Friday and the earth was very dry, the grass, as you so rightly pointed out in your post preparing your lawn for drought, is probably 4 - 6 weeks away from your predictions.

Great blog and ideas - you should be charging for access ;)

[Philip Voice]

Hi Richard,

Yes, profit has made companies take their eye off of the ball as far as responsibility and quality is concerned in my opinion.

There is a lot of scaremongering these days on the effects of global warming and water shortages but sadly the water companies appear to use this as an excuse to hide behind.

Glad you like the blog:)

Phil