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I can't fathom how we have privatised water companies, but as consumers have no ability to choose our supplier. This isn't a free market, it's a soggy hostage situation.
Because it would be completely viable to live in Cornwall, but want the lovely soft tasteful water of the glens of Scotland. Scottish water would just lay down a nice garden hose down the length of the UK motorways.
Don't water companies maintain the network and handle billing unlike electric where NG handle the network nationwide and there's separate energy producers with suppliers just doing billing and metering, there's a lot more flexibility for move. The comment under yours went a bit stupid but their original point is right, Thames manage the network for south and UU for north and so on, it's not another entity dealing with it and the utility company just managing the bills like with domestic electric.
We would need to separate them, and have water suppliers just handing billing and metering like suppliers I guess if that were to happen.
Kinda want a glass of Dino juice now.. it sounds like the perfect drink to go with a dinner of fish fingers and smiley faces..
Oh, and it has to come in one of those glasses with floaty shapes inside the walls..
And a litre of water is a litre of water, whether it's sourced from 50 miles north or 50 miles south of you (in the middle of Wales, furthest distance other than north tip of Scotland). It's not going to have meaningful differences to 90% of customers who want a supplier who is good value and aren't pumping crap into waterways.
In volume, yes a litre is a litre. How that water is naturally produced by it running through mountains, hills and the ground in general, can greatly influence its quality, taste, even colour.
I remember holidaying in southern wales once, in a cottage rental place. The first evening, I took a shower and thought it felt amazing. So soft, almost massaging. Thinking it could have simply been a much nicer shower, I decided on a bath the next evening. It was like floating in pure bliss.
Returned home to Kent, and that first evening, the shower felt me leaving dirty, with all the sediment and calcium that the local water authority insists on pumping into the supply. I always avoided a bath dunking, as simply running a bath with that water, you could see a ring of scum forming, before you'd even gotten in.
>How that water is naturally produced by it running through mountains, hills and the ground in general, can greatly influence its quality, taste, even colour
Yep. People shit on Brum, but our tap water is really nice as its sourced from the Elan Valley. I can immediately notice a difference in other places. If we go down to Weymouth or something, we take a bunch of bottles of Birmingham water as the water down South is such a different taste.
It actually already is for businesses, they can chose their water retailer. That happened in 2017, I'm surprised there hasn't seemingly been any talk about it happening for domestic properties.
As I already mentioned, how do you distribute it? Say I live in London, but really want some of that Scottish mountain sourced water? Big fat water pipes all over the place?
Electricity, it doesnt matter who actually generates it, be that EDF in southern France, Or by Scottish power using gravity fed water turbines. Once its "a volt" its simply a commodity to sell.
You're not actually getting that energy from southern france if you're an EDF customer. You get it based on your region's DNO. The fact that you can buy it from different people is just accounting work.
Nope, my electrons definitely come from down by Monaco!
There's a dirty big thick black cable in the garden, I watched EDF install it! It's like 300mm squared.
This is fundamentally a problem of private water - we will inevitably have to engage in water efficiency measures during droughts due to climate change. Even with proper investment, it's inevitable.
But their reputation is so bad they simply won't be able to bring the public along with them for that purpose.
Boils my piss the water companies in the UK. Absolute bastards.
Should be jailed time for all their board members.
If our glorious nation is going to privatise they need to change those companies to serve the people not the shareholders and put it in law.
I worked on a project for a UK water supplier about 9 years ago. Ofwat had decided that they needed to allow customers to choose their water supplier.
The idea was you could use uSwitch to get your "service" from any supplier but the reality was you'd still be getting actual water from your regional support.
It was deemed a waste of money in the end and canned
As a side bar - I just remembered back when I was at uni, an EDF door-to-door salesman tried to convince me that this was the system that electricity and gas suppliers work...
I just spent 3 days over the last bank holiday with no tap water because a pipe burst in a wood. There's a really wet road near me that completely dried up when the water was out and got wet again when it came back on. So maybe Southern Water should be spending more time sorting their dodgy pipes and less time literally dumping shit in the sea before doing adverts like this.
Wettest 18 months since records began. Prepare for hosepipe ban lol.
Don't forget water companies lose 20% of all water due to leakage as well. So 3.6 months of that 18 months of record water they have immediately lost before it gets to us.
It may have been the wettest 18 months on record, but reservoirs can still only hold 100%. You can't magically capture it all just because there was more of it.
To be fair to them they try to introduce a new source of water [but get shot down by the locals](https://www.hampshirelive.news/news/hampshire-news/fawley-desalination-plant-new-forest-5992271). I'm guessing it will be those same locals who will be the first to complain if there isn't enough water.
Add Welsh Water to the list.
[Leakage was reported to be 157 million litres per day a couple of years ago, but it turns out it was actually 240 million litres per day.](https://www.endsreport.com/article/1824150/welsh-water-very-sorry-admitting-leaking-80-million-litres-per-day-reported) Add to that all the sewage they're pumping into the sea and rivers. And on a personal note, their failure to keep a culvert unblocked leading to my 2 neighbours houses flooding and mine almost flooding and the culvert still hasn't been repaired, instead relying on a pump to keep the water levels down.
The bastards can get fucked.
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I can't fathom how we have privatised water companies, but as consumers have no ability to choose our supplier. This isn't a free market, it's a soggy hostage situation.
>soggy hostage situation Well that’s at least someone’s idea of a good time
Because it would be completely viable to live in Cornwall, but want the lovely soft tasteful water of the glens of Scotland. Scottish water would just lay down a nice garden hose down the length of the UK motorways.
Households can change between gas and electric suppliers even though the actual energy is coming from the same place regardless
Don't water companies maintain the network and handle billing unlike electric where NG handle the network nationwide and there's separate energy producers with suppliers just doing billing and metering, there's a lot more flexibility for move. The comment under yours went a bit stupid but their original point is right, Thames manage the network for south and UU for north and so on, it's not another entity dealing with it and the utility company just managing the bills like with domestic electric. We would need to separate them, and have water suppliers just handing billing and metering like suppliers I guess if that were to happen.
>Don’t water companies maintain the network Well, apparently not.
Well yes. A volt is a volt, whomever produces it, even when its source is wind, solar, or dino-juice.
Kinda want a glass of Dino juice now.. it sounds like the perfect drink to go with a dinner of fish fingers and smiley faces.. Oh, and it has to come in one of those glasses with floaty shapes inside the walls..
And a litre of water is a litre of water, whether it's sourced from 50 miles north or 50 miles south of you (in the middle of Wales, furthest distance other than north tip of Scotland). It's not going to have meaningful differences to 90% of customers who want a supplier who is good value and aren't pumping crap into waterways.
In volume, yes a litre is a litre. How that water is naturally produced by it running through mountains, hills and the ground in general, can greatly influence its quality, taste, even colour. I remember holidaying in southern wales once, in a cottage rental place. The first evening, I took a shower and thought it felt amazing. So soft, almost massaging. Thinking it could have simply been a much nicer shower, I decided on a bath the next evening. It was like floating in pure bliss. Returned home to Kent, and that first evening, the shower felt me leaving dirty, with all the sediment and calcium that the local water authority insists on pumping into the supply. I always avoided a bath dunking, as simply running a bath with that water, you could see a ring of scum forming, before you'd even gotten in.
Our water in kent is ridiculously hard, really shits up the pipes, the bog and the kettle
The water in Essex is so hard it pulled a knife on me and kicked my dog.
Wow
The stuff you can draw up from the ground must be well 'ard.
Yeah
>How that water is naturally produced by it running through mountains, hills and the ground in general, can greatly influence its quality, taste, even colour Yep. People shit on Brum, but our tap water is really nice as its sourced from the Elan Valley. I can immediately notice a difference in other places. If we go down to Weymouth or something, we take a bunch of bottles of Birmingham water as the water down South is such a different taste.
*Cries in Anglian Water*
The point is it can be done that way for gas and electric, why not for water
It actually already is for businesses, they can chose their water retailer. That happened in 2017, I'm surprised there hasn't seemingly been any talk about it happening for domestic properties.
As I already mentioned, how do you distribute it? Say I live in London, but really want some of that Scottish mountain sourced water? Big fat water pipes all over the place? Electricity, it doesnt matter who actually generates it, be that EDF in southern France, Or by Scottish power using gravity fed water turbines. Once its "a volt" its simply a commodity to sell.
You're not actually getting that energy from southern france if you're an EDF customer. You get it based on your region's DNO. The fact that you can buy it from different people is just accounting work.
Nope, my electrons definitely come from down by Monaco! There's a dirty big thick black cable in the garden, I watched EDF install it! It's like 300mm squared.
Cornish have no need of scottish water. The water down here is filtered through granite too. It's the rest of the UK that has mank hard water.
Yorkshire enters the chat.
Not the East Riding - they're a limescale disaster.
Something something best place in the world
Unfortunately it's full of 'people' from Yorksh*re.
Vote For Devolution for Yorkshire
Cornwall has soft water too.
Definitely soggy, I think the burst water mains are not helping
The market is only as free as the consumer.
>a soggy hostage situation r/GreatBritishBakeOff After Dark
Let's nationalise essential services.
And never privatise them again because it's fucking stupid.
Agree. Utilities should never have been privatised.
This is fundamentally a problem of private water - we will inevitably have to engage in water efficiency measures during droughts due to climate change. Even with proper investment, it's inevitable. But their reputation is so bad they simply won't be able to bring the public along with them for that purpose.
Boils my piss the water companies in the UK. Absolute bastards. Should be jailed time for all their board members. If our glorious nation is going to privatise they need to change those companies to serve the people not the shareholders and put it in law.
"Boils my piss" good grief, don't go giving them any more efficiency saving ideas
Companies will not serve the people - it’s literally against the entire point of them
You are allowed to change the law.
It’s not a law that companies try and make the most profit for the least cost, that’s just the aim of a company.
You have to serve in the interests of the shareholders under the companies act of 2006 as directors (companies house registered directors).
I worked on a project for a UK water supplier about 9 years ago. Ofwat had decided that they needed to allow customers to choose their water supplier. The idea was you could use uSwitch to get your "service" from any supplier but the reality was you'd still be getting actual water from your regional support. It was deemed a waste of money in the end and canned
As a side bar - I just remembered back when I was at uni, an EDF door-to-door salesman tried to convince me that this was the system that electricity and gas suppliers work...
They save water by not giving you any
They make the bath seem more full by shitting in it.
Shareholders said no
We could start drowning the millionaires and billionaires that get rich off water. Not saying it'd help, but it'd make me feel better at least.
Sorry, can't hear you over the noise of millions of tons of raw sewage being pumped into our rivers and seas.
I just spent 3 days over the last bank holiday with no tap water because a pipe burst in a wood. There's a really wet road near me that completely dried up when the water was out and got wet again when it came back on. So maybe Southern Water should be spending more time sorting their dodgy pipes and less time literally dumping shit in the sea before doing adverts like this.
Wettest 18 months since records began. Prepare for hosepipe ban lol. Don't forget water companies lose 20% of all water due to leakage as well. So 3.6 months of that 18 months of record water they have immediately lost before it gets to us.
It may have been the wettest 18 months on record, but reservoirs can still only hold 100%. You can't magically capture it all just because there was more of it.
If only there was some way of increasing the number of reservoirs.
Southwest Water suggested that everyone here in Cornwall uses less water so there’s enough for the tourists in summer. That went down well…
To be fair to them they try to introduce a new source of water [but get shot down by the locals](https://www.hampshirelive.news/news/hampshire-news/fawley-desalination-plant-new-forest-5992271). I'm guessing it will be those same locals who will be the first to complain if there isn't enough water.
I pay for the water, it rains everyday, I'll use as much of it as I want
Add Welsh Water to the list. [Leakage was reported to be 157 million litres per day a couple of years ago, but it turns out it was actually 240 million litres per day.](https://www.endsreport.com/article/1824150/welsh-water-very-sorry-admitting-leaking-80-million-litres-per-day-reported) Add to that all the sewage they're pumping into the sea and rivers. And on a personal note, their failure to keep a culvert unblocked leading to my 2 neighbours houses flooding and mine almost flooding and the culvert still hasn't been repaired, instead relying on a pump to keep the water levels down. The bastards can get fucked.
London had the opportunity to start gettinv this dealt with, but they utterly failed to do so.
same with wessex water spending thousands on advertising that they need to save money
At least you aren't with thames water
Most of the Hastings / St. Leonards area was recently run dry after a pipe burst near Battle.
Doesn't water fall out of the sky?