South East Water Hose Pipe ban?

[Dottie]

Over the last few days folk on here have mentioned hosepipe bans and I assumed that we'd be affected in the South East. But there is no mention in the local paper, or on the South East Water website. Can I take it to mean that we are still ok for now?

[selfraising]

I think until we hear anything, we are okay. I am suprised tho as it seems ages since we had any decent rain.

[bubblewrap]

The only area to get a ban is the North West.

[rustylady]

The only area to get a ban is the North West.

And they've had a lot more rain than we have!!

[jackie j]

We have been told that our resevoirs are 80 % full so we should be ok. We havent had decent rain fall for weeks. The grass is brown.

[weekendwellies]

Apparently the water in the south is mainly stored in underground reservoirs but in the north they are mainly open to the sky so I imagine that evaporation is taking away a lot of our rain water up north which is why we are having the hosepipe ban. That coupled with the fact that United Utilities is rubbish at fixing any leaks and the pipes are the ones the Victorians installed which are still to be updated to more modern leak resistant ones.

[Dottie]

Thanks for your replies and confirming we don't have a ban. Really pleased and really surprised, as we've had so little rain these last few months. I feel lucky to live in an area where the water company is able to cope with supply and demand. Good on you South East Water.

[Alison]

And they've had a lot more rain than we have!!

Erm no, we've not had any in months, think Scotland has but that's a totally different area. Water butts are now running on empty and am struggling to keep the things that need watering OK.

To be honest I can't remember how we were told last time we had a ban but the only reason we know about this one is cos it's been on the news, would be interested to know how easy it is to prosecute somebody for using a hosepipe when they could quite easily claim that nobody had told them.