I live in Devon. I am under a hosepipe ban. My supplier (South West Water) is very kindly suggesting some "easy wins" for me to save water, like taking less time in the shower, or using my washing machine less. It reckons that this way my household could save 12 litres per person per day, for a total of 48 litres saved per day, or about 18,000 litres per year. Sounds like a lot, right?

Yeah. The thing is, South West Water (in common with the other privatised water companies) lost 90 *million* litres *per day* in leaks in the last year for which data are available (https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/publication/leakage-dataset-march-2023/). And even that is likely a significant under-estimate, because it's under investigation by the regulator on suspicion of mis-reporting its leak figures. It has also paid out £112M in dividends to shareholders this week, while kindly putting my bills up, so sorry, we need money for investment to stop dumping all this sewage we're dumping. Illegally.

My little 48 litres is a literal drop in the ocean. Why on Earth would I put myself out when it will make not a blind bit of difference to the water available for general use?

In absolute terms, 18kl per year feels like a lot, granted. But the sheer effrontery of coming to me effectively cap in hand while handing out an actual fortune to their shareholders makes me want to just leave all my taps running.

South-West Water: Take the beam out of your own eye. Fix your flood of leaks before you come asking me to inconvenience myself to save (relatively speaking) drops. You've got the money for it, or at least you did before you gave it to your shareholders. Scum.

#uk #water #leaks #ukwater #devon #hosepipeban #southwestwater #nationaliseukwater

@junesim63

#ClimateDiary adding this article on the #HosePipeBan (the earliest in 11 years). Pretty bad that 4 schools (as well as several households) in different parts of #Sussex found themselves without water and had to close. #Southeastern Water are blaming customers for using far too much water. This may be true but there are also serious #Infrastructure issues and failures by Southeastern themselves. #privatisation breaking the whole system. #Drought

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/15/kent-water-shortages-school-closures

#ClimateDiary

#Kent and #Sussex hosepipe ban announced from 26 June

“Some households in Kent and Sussex have been without water since Monday due to supply issues”

@junesim63 you were sayjng this the other day: good to finally have a #HosePipeBan now but it really sounds like they left it to the very last minute, in the name of “business as usual” #Drought

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-65927032

RT @paulbesleywrite@twitter.com

Hello @YorkshireWater@twitter.com this leak on Dykes Hall Road, Sheffield S6 has been running continuously for 2 weeks now. Can we have it repaired soon and save the water. #waterleaks #hosepipeBan

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/paulbesleywrite/status/1564569761014579201

RT @RAF_Luton
BREAKING: The A380 Supersoaker is assisting local authorities in Basingstoke deal with the #HosepipeBan by dropping powdered H20 to help replenish water supplies in the area, the Supersoaker carries up to 800.85tons of the powder

#ClimateEmergency #UKHeatwave

📸 from a Canberra

Fun fact: In England today, 3bn gallons of water will be lost to leaks that the water companies couldn't be bothered to do anything about.

But YOU have to stop flushing the toilet if you've only done a wee because YOU are wasting water.

#drought #HosepipeBan