Have your taps ever run dry?

“London” is a big place having around 14% of the UK’s population, so not surprising it is in the news to illustrate the affect of burst mains. However, the news also included the “south east”, which is more than London, and Staffordshire and other parts of the Midlands for example.

Do we replace every water main to get rid of the old and potentially fragile pipes? Can’t be done because of the money involved, can it? So very very occasionally there will be a problem and we have to accept it. Just how many times a year do you lose your water supply? Can’t you cope with it?

Some free bottled water was provided at a few locations, but our nearest collection point was a 15-minute drive away – pretty useless if you don’t have a car or can’t drive“. A bit unfortunate, but try buying some (if they have any) from your supermarket , tie up with a friend with a car or contact the water company.

“water suppliers had ’fallen well short’ on forward planning“. Does this mean they should have predicted a particular area would have a burst main and been ready with bottles?

Last September there were two major water main failures affecting our area at the same time. One was 26 feet below ground, so hardly an easy or quick job to repair. We were given automatic updates every 2 hours. This was Thames Water – well done to them.

Compensation? You’ll all pay for it through increased bills. If the water company is incompetent or negligent then other action should be taken, but when it is essentially caused by an act of God should he provide the compensation? 🙁

What became of the multi-billion pound London water ring main that has been the cause of road blockages around inner London for many years? This was designed, first, to act as a trunk distributor of water to places where there was a temporary shortage, and second, to act as a form of reservoir to ensure that additional supplies would be available at any location in the capital. One advantage of underground water storage is that it is not exposed to sunlight or evaporation. Has the ring main been completed yet, or commissioned into service? Most of our recent monarchs have been named after enormous reservoirs built around London over the last 100 years. There should have been no general water shortage and I was surprised to see reports that reservoirs had been running dry due to the escape of water through burst pipes. Did somebody make that story up? – I saw no reference to scenes of deep flooding that would have occurred if there had been large scale bursts. Small scale leaks [occurring before the supply could be isolated] would have eventually fed back into the aquifer from which London draws much of its water so there is not much actual loss of water, albeit it has to be treated again before it can re-enter the supply.

The suggestion for a national water grid would largely have used rivers and other waterways to carry the water around the country, rather than a large bore pipe from Scotland to southern England. There would have to be large pipework connexions and valves or sluices between the various rivers, canals and reservoirs forming the grid and that would no doubt have been extremely expensive. There were also serious concerns over river quality and wildlife protection if excess water was suddenly diverted from one river to another in order to boost supplies to another region. Central management and control of water transfer had also not been satisfactorily resolved and a long lead-in time would have been necessary.

I believe that the last time that a water company had to undertake large-scale temporary water distribution was in 1995 when, during a drought, Yorkshire Water had to set up a massive operation involving fleets of tankers to ship water from one side of their supply area to the other because reservoirs had dried out. The company was criticised by the regulator at the time for inadequate planning and contingency arrangements. The logistical operation itself was impressive but the inconvenience to hundreds of thousands of customers was massive and the cost was colossal. A pipeline was subsequently constructed to enable the balancing of supplies. Topographical factors were involved here that do not apply in the Thames Basin.

It’s accepted that not all old & fragile pipes can be replaced, so companies should have better processes in place when shortages occur/supplies cut off. The lack is communication is incredibly poor! We can’t change water supplier so we shouldn’t be taken advantage of. Not only would it be difficult for vulnerable people to go out and buy water, but also for those with young children and babies to look after.
Good luck with your compensation claim!

For most of my life I have lived in areas with modern pipework and the only time my supply has been interrupted has been for scheduled maintenance work. When cold weather was forecast I filled a plastic container in case of interruption of the supply or frozen pipes.

Some are unconvinced that we need decent broadband provision in the UK, but a reliable source of safe drinking water is essential. It’s obvious that in some areas, supply piping is overdue for replacement, partly because of the vast wastage caused by leakage. John mentions a couple of the problems associated with moving water round the country, and there are more. Water is a valuable resource and we need to stop leaks and move to metering of all use.

It is an interesting problem that arises very very infrequently and so the matter of cost to benefit should be considered. There is no doubt Thames Water failed “to deliver” in terms of communication. It will be interesting to hear how a unique service can scale up it’s communications in an emergency.

On a technical note the trend to rising mains and the loss of cold water tanks in the loft has no doubt made the cutting of water supplies much more damaging as effects start immediately.

That there should be a back up bowser service for deployment would seem simple on the face of it given the Army should have a reasonable number. It then comes down to having arrangements in place for deployment and ensuring all people had access. There would always be a minimum time before it could come into effect and knowing what that is, and the amount of bowsers available would hopefully come up in the post-mortem.