serious drought issue

[Dave Brown]

Job for this weekend is to disconnect all down pipes from the soak aways. Had them disconnected from 2003 to 2006. The aim is to get as much water onto the garden rather than to a soak away

[GoggleboxUK]

Why are you all paying so much for water? I pay £325 a year, 10 monthly payments and 2 months off in March and April.

£100 a month seems ludicrous.

[Bob]

Why are you all paying so much for water? I pay £325 a year, 10 monthly payments and 2 months off in March and April.

£100 a month seems ludicrous.

Put simply.
The South West has 30% of the UK coastline but only 3% of the UK population. Due to legislation 20 odd years ago they had to stop pumping sewerage into the sea and build processing plants for it (blue flag beaches) the £1.5 - 2bn it has cost is being payed by the few people who live here.

So it's the sewerage rather than the water (we have plenty!)that make our bills the highest in the country.

[Adam D]

Up here in Scotland the water charge is collected with the council tax and I am going to pay £600 for the year.

I have toyed with the idea of going to a meter, but as there are 5 of us in the house I think that I could end up paying more and once you have switched you can't switch back.

[Bob]

Up here in Scotland the water charge is collected with the council tax and I am going to pay £600 for the year.

I have toyed with the idea of going to a meter, but as there are 5 of us in the house I think that I could end up paying more and once you have switched you can't switch back.

Thats a tough one Adam. We had 12 months to make our minds up whether to go back to unmetered.You'd have to sit down and work out out what you actually use, although they should provide you with guidelines/tables of average useages per person etc. With both kids now left home it was a no brainer for me.

[GoggleboxUK]

There are some massive changes being forecast in the way household appliances use water in the next few years which should alleviate rising bills.

Washing machines have been developed that only use 10% of the water they use now for example and toilet systems are available that don't use paper making sewage treatment much less costly.

Perhaps the oddest new technology is already being trialled in Japan where the 30% bacterial mass from human waste is extracted and grown on to produce what are currently being imaginitively called "crappe_burgers".

Apparently producing a meat substitute from loads of shallots is considered a revolutionary new way to 'Feed the World'.

http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/articles ... -made-poop

I can hear Bob Geldof singing "Let then know it's loads of shallots for tea" already.