camelot-forum.co.uk

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/f ... 6731&ei=13

A classic express piece but underlying the drama of raiding the rich to provide for the poor is a very real requirement. As a traditionally wet island we are staring to dry out, perhaps exacerbated by too large a population for our islands carrying capacity, that's another element of the larger debate i guess.

What gets me is the idea that the better off have to pay for the poorest? That's always going to be divisive and really doesn't stop water waste, it just moves it from one economic group to another. Maybe they should think about water allowances for the individual ? A basic water allowance per person - maybe on a sliding scale according to age, gender, health etc. after that allowance is reached the rest is charged at a premium rate ? Thus Mr Swimming Pool and Mr mid terraced - both aged 68 with wife and two dogs both get the same basic allowance of water and all is fair, if either of the goes over the cumulative household allowance they pay the premium for the extra water they use. Water is produced and waste water treated on this simple personal allowance basis.

Of course before they can really do this they need to get the water industry back to a basic position of self sufficiency with no debt otherwise the privatisation with be paid by us - again. They also have to free up the market to ensure people can buy water and water treatment services from any water company as is the case today with industrial users.

I expect this problem to rattle around for a while as its a politically sensitive issue but we do need to start looking after our water resources if we are to avoid the same issues we have with power production etc.

Moxi

The article indicates that by 2038 the UK faces a shortage of 200 million litres of water. No indication of over what period that shortage is but since the only timescale in the paragraph is 2038 do weasume that is per year? Again very poor reporting - no surprise. The UK appears to use 14 billion litres per day (quick google check) with over 3 billion of that being lost to leaks. So even 200 million per day would seem faily trivial.

I tend to agree with Mart though that here should be a fairer way of paying for the water we use. The simplest approach could be to make water meters compulsory after all it you don't have to pay for something other than a standing charge what is the incentive to conserve it. At present the only benefit to having a water meter is for those that use less water such that their bill is less than that for an enmetered supply, which I believe is based on council tax property value rather than occupants. It might make sense as Mart suggests to have a subsidy scheme for those that have a higher requirement for health and other reasons. I suspect having a bill based on occupancy rather than usage invites all sorts of abuse unfortunately.

My industry this one, been involved with two listed water companies for my whole working life at varying levels, from technical design to operating to emergency drought management and tankering, and major flooding events, am now in Regulations, efficency and quality of supply.

The main trouble stems from the abject lack of people training and skills/experience and investment, both clean and dirty, and their really is no easy fix.

Everybody jumps up and down about a 'national water grid' to move water about. There isnt really any hope of one. Ever.

Each water company has its own area, and that area is split into what is called district meter areas (dma). many many of them. Think of them as postcodes. Each dma has a single metered supply going into it to record the areas total uagage and losses. The next dma has its similar own feed. Now all of these dmas are linked together with closed valves which remain shut during normal times. in effect this set up allows the water company to 'police and account for' easier managed smaller areas. in emergencies (fires bursts contamination etc) these dmas can be altered by messing with the valves to keep customers supplied, but at the expense of the consistent usable data. So, in simplistic terms, nobody can understand what is being used where or by whom with any good reliability, as these interconnecting valves are operated a lot.

Water companies boundaries with others are also linked with closed valves and import/export meters. So some companies (most in fact) can offer support to adj companies in times of need. However the interconnections are often very small as at the extremities of each companys network, where pipes are smallest, so the help is minimal. For a national grid that would need changing and is significantly expensive.

Differing blends of water for doffering areas to, depending upon sources, often solicits taste complaints from punters when altered.

Had a huge flooding event in Gloucester to help manage once. We had full use of all civic emergency functions, the police, fire brigade, imported all the maintenance teams from london underground, as well as mobilised huge army tankers and staff, flew in bottled water from abroad on cargo planes, borrowed practically every water tanker/bowser in the country and stripped all supermarket chains of all bottled supplies. It was an absolute 'balls to the wall' event and a total operational disaster despite it all and the efforts made. None of the businesses are prepared. At that was the better of my two employers (by far).

Current company is an embarrasment to work for.
Regularly Fiddle the leakage figures to Ofwat (the previous one got caught doing the same and fined).
The management is far far worse, and the state of the infrastructure is a shocker, and ive seen bad stuff in my time.
Oddly the local operational guys i work with are the most competant ive worked with in nearly 35 years, but they are so chocked with apathy after being downtrodden for years and ignored, its a realy example of a poor company.

Efficency and meters. most people are on them now countrywide and the tech is pretty clever, modern meters can sense leaks automatically and report back, down here in the 'sticks' a huge problem is people bypassing them, as oftenminfrastructure is on private land so easy to mess with - there are no checks for this! Big push on trying to reduce consumption targets, but impossible to force and police, so wont come to anything at all.

Last year we had a shortage down here, reservoir levels were dropping in a continual slide downwards, i watched the live data on the corporate systems. The media and regulators were of course told a different story. I saw levels in my own local service resr dropping to 11% - its physically 8mpossible to get water out of it at all once it hits 9%! It was that touch and go it was squeeky bum time for the management. The company formally reported the lowest it ever went was 27%. lying gits. We have a total of 9 water tankers across the whole south west to deal with problems, couldnt even keep my resr topped up sufficently rotation those around.

Right better stop now before i bore you all to sleep, interesting field for sure though. Latest idea is 'month of usage' tariffs, higher charges in the summer. Some poor folk in Torquay being forced to take part.

Cheers @resybaby not boring at all, even if slightly alarming. Seems like change won't be coming too soon after all.
Thanks for enlightening us.

Resy, that was a great read, thank you for typing it out.