Drought southern England - How will you cope? - What can be done?

[Two_Sheds]

You can use bathwater to water non-root veg

Bath water contains faecal matter: do you want that on your lettuces?

have a young-un who has a bath everyday

It's not necessary to have a bath every day: it's a luxury. We used to have a bath on a Sunday, and a strip wash every morning. Because of my eczema, I still only bathe once a week

Water is not a limited resource, we are surrounded by the stuff, maybe parts of England need to consider desalination.

We are, but it will increase bills again.Water desalination plant opens for testing in Beckton, London | Environment | The Guardian
The south and east UK don't get as much rain as the north and west, and they use more (over-population around London).
Our rivers and streams are drying up: yet water still comes out of the taps, and water companies are making money hand over fist. I predict that water butts, which we're encouraged to use, will have to be licensed sometime in the future.

I made everyone use the overbath shower, with the plug in

We do that, and this year the loo isn't going to be flushed so much

[Jeanied]

Hmm - I think I'll get one of those syphon thingummyjigs. Thanks for the link TS.

These days I take more baths as I am not showering and dashing out to work in the mornings.

[Alison]

as long as people are prepared to pay for it - it's a very expensive way to get water in energy terms, whereas it's free from the sky, it just needs better storage than we have at present. Building more reservoirs would be much less costly and save much more energy in the long term.

Water out the sky is free but it still needs treating and then transporting to the right place. Reservoirs aren't cheap or easy to build and have a detrimental effect on the land taken (especially if you live on / off it). Yes desal isn't cheap but neither are the alternatives. As has already been said, one of the main things that needs to be looked at is useage, we use far more than we every used to and far too much is wasted. Ideally a lot of our water useage doesn't need to be potable quality, obviously for drinking etc but does toilet water really need to be good enough to drink, obvioulsy not but the infrastructure isn't set up for dual supplies and it's not easy to retrofit. Oh and it's raining here

[Vince G]

How does it work with allotments? The water on our lottie got turned off in November and will presumably go on again in the spring. We just about escaped drought/hose pipe bans in this part of Suffolk last summer, but what happens if drought is declared in my neck of the woods this summer? Does the water to the lottie get restricted in some way?....and how are lottie water bills paid? I pay less than 20quid a year for my half plot, and although ours is a biggish field, the water use must be phenomenal.

[Two_Sheds]

^ I don't use much from the tap, tbh. I have a few water butts and they nearly always supply enough I only water seedlings really, bigger plants might get a drink once a week if it's hot. I don't water the surface, I use upturned pop bottles to get the water to the roots where it's needed.

Using watering cans instead of hosepipes really makes you more mindful of the waste.

[di]

The water is usually turned off on our site over the winter too, Vince. I think it's more to do with frozen and bursting pipes.

I shower everyday, don't think I could do without, but it's a two minute job and not a power shower. The kiddies just bath either once or twice a week...at their age, they don't smell and I don't think it's good for their skin to have them more often.

I don't have many plants in the garden, just a peach tree and Christmas tree in pots and a few herbs, tomatoes and peppers and now strawberries...oh, and a few flowers. They'll all get either bath or washing up water.

Also, lovely as it may seem to 'stay on top of things'...I'm resisting the urge to wash up breakfast things if it's just two bowls. For some reason you still run as much water.

And to finish...'If it's yellow, let it mellow....If it's brown, flush it down'

[Two_Sheds]

"if it's yellow ... NO! not in the loo, I need you to do it on the compost heap !"

[di]

But my compost heaps at the lottie, a long way to cross my legs! Maybe I should get a bucket.

[Hilary B]

Water is not a limited resource, we are surrounded by the stuff, maybe parts of England need to consider desalination.

ready-to-use drinkable water IS a limited resource, and desalination is not exactly environmentally friendly.....
The amount of water WASTED (much of it via leaking pipework, but that is no excuse for individuals to be wasteful too) would go waaay beyond what we need without any desalination or similar nonsense.

[Hilary B]

Quote Originally Posted by Hilary B View Post
You can use bathwater to water non-root veg
Bath water contains faecal matter: do you want that on your lettuces?

It won't BE on the lettuces, the water goes on the SOIL not the PLANTS!

[Two_Sheds]

It won't BE on the lettuces, the water goes on the SOIL not the PLANTS!

I just wanted to make the point to anyone new that's reading, that grey water is not recommended for veggies, because of the bacteria issue. We're always hearing about the scares: beansprouts & watermelons are the latest ones that I recall.

If you do it, carefully, that's your choice my lovely. Who knows what I put on my own veg plot

[rustylady]

Surely if you wash your veg before eating or cooking it then it will be fine. Horse/cow muck is faeces and loads of people use that on their plots.

[veggiechicken]

I just wonder what people do in their baths - surely they could use a toilet instead?

[Two_Sheds]

Horse/cow muck is faeces

But it's composted, and the pathogens have been killed.

[Two_Sheds]

in their baths - surely they could use a toilet instead?

We wash our private parts. That invariably means that faecal matter and bacteria will enter the water.