Drought!!

[Watts.E.Dunn]

If anyone knows of any rain dances they can they just get on with it, else we'll be in shite sans propulsion!...

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[mr.bluesky]

We're an Island surrounded by water ffs. Why don't we have desalination treatment plants dotted around the coast and turn sea water into drinkable water. An endless supply of water 

[scutty brown]

this feels like a replay of 1976

[Blackpool Rock]

this feels like a replay of 1976

It's almost every year (apart from last year which was a total write off as we didn't have a summer  ) even if it's pissed down for the previous 6 months 

[Blackpool Rock]

We're an Island surrounded by water ffs. Why don't we have desalination treatment plants dotted around the coast and turn sea water into drinkable water. An endless supply of water 

I believe desalination is quite energy intense and therefore quite expensive plus an environmental disaster unless you use 100% renewable energy sources

[DastardlyDick]

I believe desalination is quite energy intense and therefore quite expensive plus an environmental disaster unless you use 100% renewable energy sources

Afford of mine lives in Cyprus, where they regularly have water shortages, apparently, it's cheaper to have large tankers deliver water by sea from Greece than it is to run desalination p!ants.

[Jumping Jack Flash]

It’s the middle of May, the weather will change because it always does.

[scutty brown]

I believe desalination is quite energy intense and therefore quite expensive plus an environmental disaster unless you use 100% renewable energy sources

Probably easier to tow a few icebergs from Greenland

[Watts.E.Dunn]

I believe desalination is quite energy intense and therefore quite expensive plus an environmental disaster unless you use 100% renewable energy sources

Indeed it is, i have a mate who works at the local water co he said if he had his way they'd be an immediate hosepipe ban and a limit on water car wash places use!. In fact here in Cambridge we pinch a lot of water from near Thetford in Norfolk they built a long pipleine some years ago for that purpose they are getting worried it seems its not the same circumstances as 1976 whch i remember quite well my then slighty loopy GF, bless her, danced around an a downpiur totally naked!.

As to deslaination this does use a lot of energy at scale, it is splitting water into Hydrogen and Oxygen.

[mr.bluesky]

Indeed it is, i have a mate who works at the local water co he said if he had his way they'd be an immediate hosepipe ban and a limit on water car wash places use!. In fact here in Cambridge we pinch a lot of water from near Thetford in Norfolk they built a long pipleine some years ago for that purpose they are getting worried it seems its not the same circumstances as 1976 whch i remember quite well my then slighty loopy GF, bless her, danced around an a downpiur totally naked!.

As to deslaination this does use a lot of energy at scale, it is splitting water into Hydrogen and Oxygen.

Knowing our coastline they would have to remove a lot of sewage too 

[diver ted]

Graphene filters can desalinate seawater but there are problems with the filters such as cost at scale and lifespan.
Were these to be resolved (and shared!) it would radically change water shortages across the world, increase food production, reduce potential conflict...

[petermisc]

Graphene filters can desalinate seawater but there are problems with the filters such as cost at scale and lifespan.
Were these to be resolved (and shared!) it would radically change water shortages across the world, increase food production, reduce potential conflict...

You sound like one of the Tomorrow's World presenters of old.  There is a big difference between something that works on a small scale in a research lab, and something that can churn out water on an industrial scale producing the kind of volumes that farmers would need for irrigation. It is all very well saying that it only needs the problems to be resolved - equally well, if only the problems could be resolved, then chocolate teapots and lead balloons would be a thing.

[DastardlyDick]

You sound like one of the Tomorrow's World presenters of old.  There is a big difference between something that works on a small scale in a research lab, and something that can churn out water on an industrial scale producing the kind of volumes that farmers would need for irrigation. It is all very well saying that it only needs the problems to be resolved - equally well, if only the problems could be resolved, then chocolate teapots and lead balloons would be a thing.

It depends on what quality you want the water to be. Obviously, a farmer wouldn't need drinking quality water to put on crops, they could use "grey water" which needs little, if any, treatment for that use. My Cyprus based friend tells me that our SBAs use grey water for the grass and decorative plants.

[Munter84]

i have a mate who works at the local water co he said if he had his way they'd be an immediate hosepipe ban and a limit on water car wash places use!

Call me a cynic but I've long believed the domestic end-user bears very little responsibility or even power in the big scheme of things.

Domestic use accounts for 3-5% of national water usage, industry a further 5%, and the rest (and the lion's share) is accounted for by agriculture.

The UK uses about 14 billion litres of water a day, of which over 3 billion is immediately lost to leakage.

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So, when water companies lecture us about taking shorter showers or putting a brick in our toilet cisterns to give a lighter flush - all in the name of pulling together for the greater good, after the negligent fuckers have spent decades mismanaging the mains network and polluting waterways - I have a strong urge to tell them where they can stick their patronising, wagging fingers.

As with energy usage, pollution and so on, the domestic user is a drop in the ocean. Get industry (and multinational companies, and utility companies, etc) to clean their act up first.

[JontyR]

It depends on what quality you want the water to be. Obviously, a farmer wouldn't need drinking quality water to put on crops, they could use "grey water" which needs little, if any, treatment for that use. My Cyprus based friend tells me that our SBAs use grey water for the grass and decorative plants.

Sorry....SBAs?

[DastardlyDick]

Sorry....SBAs?

Sovereign Base Areas

[Blackpool Rock]

Call me a cynic but I've long believed the domestic end-user bears very little responsibility or even power in the big scheme of things.

Domestic use accounts for 3-5% of national water usage, industry a further 5%, and the rest (and the lion's share) is accounted for by agriculture.

The UK uses about 14 billion litres of water a day, of which over 3 billion is immediately lost to leakage.

Source: External Link/Members Only

So, when water companies lecture us about taking shorter showers or putting a brick in our toilet cisterns to give a lighter flush - all in the name of pulling together for the greater good, after the negligent fuckers have spent decades mismanaging the mains network and polluting waterways - I have a strong urge to tell them where they can stick their patronising, wagging fingers.

As with energy usage, pollution and so on, the domestic user is a drop in the ocean. Get industry (and multinational companies, and utility companies, etc) to clean their act up first.

+1

[snaitram99]

Call me a cynic but I've long believed the domestic end-user bears very little responsibility or even power in the big scheme of things.

Domestic use accounts for 3-5% of national water usage, industry a further 5%, and the rest (and the lion's share) is accounted for by agriculture.

The UK uses about 14 billion litres of water a day, of which over 3 billion is immediately lost to leakage.

Source: External Link/Members Only

So, when water companies lecture us about taking shorter showers or putting a brick in our toilet cisterns to give a lighter flush - all in the name of pulling together for the greater good, after the negligent fuckers have spent decades mismanaging the mains network and polluting waterways - I have a strong urge to tell them where they can stick their patronising, wagging fingers.

As with energy usage, pollution and so on, the domestic user is a drop in the ocean. Get industry (and multinational companies, and utility companies, etc) to clean their act up first.

It may be true that the lion's share is accounted for by agriculture, but at least this mostly won't have gone through extensive filtration and treatment. I assume most is by direct abstraction from water sources.

I think in the domestic setting one of the most wasteful things we do in this country is daily use of vast quantities of high quality drinking water to flush toilets (and water gardens).

[Blackpool Rock]

It may be true that the lion's share is accounted for by agriculture, but at least this mostly won't have gone through extensive filtration and treatment. I assume most is by direct abstraction from water sources.

I think in the domestic setting one of the most wasteful things we do in this country is daily use of vast quantities of high quality drinking water to flush toilets (and water gardens).

I'm not sure if it is or whether there are plans to do it but all new builds really should require a grey water storage for flushing toilets and watering gardens etc 

[petermisc]

It may be true that the lion's share is accounted for by agriculture, but at least this mostly won't have gone through extensive filtration and treatment. I assume most is by direct abstraction from water sources.

Likewise that used by industry and power generation.

[petermisc]

I'm not sure if it is or whether there are plans to do it but all new builds really should require a grey water storage for flushing toilets and watering gardens etc

I don't think it is as simple as that.  For starters, it would need pumping up to give useful pressure.  And what about everything that sedimented out in the storage.  You would probably need to ban kitchen waste disposers, for example, to cut down on the amount of solids finding their way in.  Even so, a tank full of decomposing potato peelings, rancid soap, etc wouldn't be too popular.

[Blackpool Rock]

I don't think it is as simple as that.  For starters, it would need pumping up to give useful pressure.  And what about everything that sedimented out in the storage.  You would probably need to ban kitchen waste disposers, for example, to cut down on the amount of solids finding their way in.  Even so, a tank full of decomposing potato peelings, rancid soap, etc wouldn't be too popular.

But these systems already exist and are in use 

[advent2016]

We're an Island surrounded by water ffs. Why don't we have desalination treatment plants dotted around the coast and turn sea water into drinkable water. An endless supply of water 

This might explain why
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[southcoastpunter]

I don't think it is as simple as that. 

and that just about sums up so many threads on here where guys (and often the same ones) spout a lot of "bright ideas" or "solutions" without thinking things through. If they did, they would come up with reasons why it wouldn't always be feasible.

When water (as with most other indudtries) were privatised they needed millions in investment then - yes private companies have taken money out in terms of dividends etc but they also have invested millions too. all of of infrastructure has suffered under-investment for decades - and way before privatisation. And governments of both colours have, over many years, shown they cannot manage businesses/organisations effectively. With water, its more a recent thing that we have started to take it seriously, before people's attitute was more "whats the problem - so much of it falls out of the sky, we have bucket loads of it!!"

[cunningman]

I don't think it is as simple as that.  For starters, it would need pumping up to give useful pressure.  And what about everything that sedimented out in the storage.  You would probably need to ban kitchen waste disposers, for example, to cut down on the amount of solids finding their way in.  Even so, a tank full of decomposing potato peelings, rancid soap, etc wouldn't be too popular.

Its rainwater that's stored and used for flushing etc, not reusing something that's already gone down a sink to waste.