[rowlandwells]

I don't believe it a hosepipe ban could be imminent this summer according to the evening ITV news I only said to my O/H the other day when we passed our local reservoir how low it was it just hasn't recovered from the dry spell last year

the thing i is we are building new dwellings round hear like there going out of fashion with the same reservoir built some 60 years ago before everyone got dishwashers automatic washing machines and two toilets per house and there's been at least 2 large housing estates built all tapping into the system 

they have just installed a new pumping system in our village to cope with the new houses when they turned it on we ended up with 3 pipe busts in the maim line that took 4 days to put right the mind boggles 

[greenjay]

no shortage of water here in wales.
the local reservoir was truly overflowing on new years day.

[grinling]

The rivers are very low here causing problems for fish. There has been some rain, but as the majority of the land is for growing we need more rain

[LILLILEAF]

north wales plenty of water here its every where even places you don't wanted

[Val H]

I don't think Welsh Water has declared a hosepipe ban since the mid 1980's - over 30 years ago!

[wighty]

Used the park and ride yesterday at Cowes as we were going to Southampton to see Craig Revelle Horwood in Snow White at the Mayflower ( really good  panto fun).  The park and ride is next to the reservoir and we both commented on how low it was.  From the car park level we couldn't even see the top of the water!  As the Island was the first place in the country to have water meters, when we agreed (?) they could experiment on us they promised in return we would not have hosepipe bans but this has been conveniently forgotten.

[al78]

Same issue in the far SE (East Sussex and Kent). The resevoirs are about 30% below full capacity due to the dry weather in the first half of 2017. Rainfall has also been below average through autumn and December. It hasn't stopped the soil here around Horsham from being sodden most of the time since August though, probably thanks to five (soon to be six) consecutive months with below normal sunshine.

[mumofstig]

According to the MetO we had between 75-85% of out normal rainfall, here in the SE corner, 96% for England as a whole.
Are we now using that much water that anything less than 100% means a hosepipe ban?
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/2017/weather-review-of-2017
I know it is always a contentious issue, siting them, but I think we really need more reservoirs, here.
We seem to pay a lot for our water, so why not?

[al78]

Perhaps we need to try and encourage companies to establish their head offices in cities other than London, providing jobs for other cities and spreading the population load. The SE doesn't have the big hills that the western and northern parts of the UK have, so there are going to be limited places reservoirs can be built. The problem is we seem to have gradually engineered the country to encourage as many people as possible to live in the most water stressed part of the country. It would be laughable irrational stupidity if it was deliberate.

[snowdrops]

Maybe more investment needs to be put in to not using drinking water where it’s not needed, for example  washing our cars,clothes,flushing toilets for starters, people watering plants,grass etc that just doesn’t need it. I watch people on our site just watering everything with just a few sprinkles of tap water every day in warm weather. I sink bottles in next to beans,squashes,sweetcorn etc & water through them every week if needed.

[davethespread]

i know this will be contentious  but with the population growing the way it is every week, its not very surprising that this small island's resources are running out.

[rowlandwells]

thank god someone agrees with my topic your absolutely rite davethespread after all this snow followed by flooding in some parts of the country   if we get a hot summer he says with tongue in cheek 

the water companies will be screaming for us gardeners to turn of our hose pipes I just can't understand where this country's going when where supposedly one of the riches countries in the world yet every time we turn the TV on every part of our services that we come to both expect and respect is going down the pan for the lack of cash

do we export anything these days i ask myself as we import most things these days including gas and oil to name just two perhaps we may be importing water shortly and then we going to build all these new homes that will need water it gets better you could't  right it 

[Christine]

Sounds like some water companies need to look at their infrastructure mind. There's far too many leaky pipes. Up here if you report to the local water company that a meter looks as if it's leaking there are bodies on site faster than ice cream melting in a sweltering summer despite the size of Northumberland. And we have Kielder Water behind us to care for the county (some interesting archaeology there about the villages that went when it was built).

I lived with family in West Yorkshire in the 1976 drought - now that's not a county that suffers from lack of rain. The water company had done no repairs to the infrastructure for so many years that the reservoirs ran dry through leaking pipes. Don't think that they've completely sorted that one out yet. There's a few more water companies the same (Thames Water folks).

[grinling]

some fields have flooded up here, which still have potatoes in for Walkers crisps.
could do with a dry spell for the septic tank.
Lincolnshire imports water as we only have 3 reservoirs

[8doubles]

some fields have flooded up here, which still have potatoes in for Walkers crisps.
could do with a dry spell for the septic tank.
Lincolnshire imports water as we only have 3 reservoirs

Are the drainage pumps still running on the Fens 24/7 ?