Water

[Hylander]

I see lots of problems with Anglian Water today especially in Horning.  Hope they get put back on soon.

 

I gather it has affected Neatishead and surrounding area.

 

 

 

 

[Mouldy]

24 minutes ago, Hylander said:

I see lots of problems with Anglian Water today especially in Horning.  Hope they get put back on soon.

 

I gather it has affected Neatishead and surrounding area.

Hardly a week goes past, where we live, without Anglian Water digging a hole to fix a leak.  It’s obvious that the infrastructure is long overdue a massive overhaul, but I guess that spending money to improve their service, might impact bonuses to their board and shareholders.

Shameful!

[Aboattime]

Parts of Kent and Sussex have had no water sinse Monday and now they have a hose pipe ban !!

[YnysMon]

This is slightly off topic, but is story related to utilities that my Mam told me. Her grandfather worked for the (private) waterboard that installed and maintained the first proper infrastructure in Holyhead. After he retired, probably in the 1930s, they realised that they hadn’t bothered to map it out, but had been relying on his knowledge, as he knew exactly where to dig whenever there was a leak. They brought him out of retirement for a while to help map it out.

[SwanR]

There was a burst water main near where I am. We were very fortunate not to lose our supply but the water pressure was noticeably lower than usual.

[Chelsea14Ian]

Another  year,water shortages.The water company's,compline again  that they try there best.Really no joined up thinking. We live in an Island  surrounded  by water,Water  falls on us Oh then when it rains hard,they throw all the toilet  water into the sea and rivers.

[Hylander]

When we lived in Bahrain it hardly ever rained but there was always water in the taps,  granted you could not drink it but we went to a depot to collect the drinking water in a huge tank.   Well it seemed huge to me,  I was only 10.   I do believe the drinking water was desalinated.

 

 

 

 

[addicted]

When we moved to Brookmans Park Herts in 1990 we discovered that there was a water metre installed which we hadn't been made aware of. Brookmans Park was one of a few areas in the UK that were designated trial areas. and the charges for water varied at  diffferent times of the day and night. For instance,  if you wanted to put the washing machine on first thing  in the morning you simply didn't,  it was hugely expensive.  Because we were having the kitchen re-modelled  the water board came and  removed the meter. When the  water bill arrived a couple of months later it was estimated. I phoned them and asked what  they had estimated it  on and the reply was that it was based on previous bills, Really? was my response. There was a family of 6 living here then and now's there's two so how do you make that out and why didn't you read the meter? Since you moved it it is now located under the road somewhere and accessible at all times. A short conversation  followed with sufficient  prevarication for me to ascertain the the true situation. So,  I said, That pair of cowboys you sent to remove the metre didn't advise you where they had put it and now you  don't know where to find it. And this was indeed the case. It just so happened I was due to attend a conference later that morning and the guest speaker turned out to be be none other than the chairman of the local water board!  He gave a talk extolling the virtues of having a water metre a fairly unknown quantity in those days with alarmist rumours circulating such as elderly people being unable to afford to flush their toilets more once a day etc. When I approached  the speaker later he told me that they had had more difficulty with the residents of Brookmans Park (most of them were premier division footballers) than all the other areas put together and he promised to look into my situation. Next morning,  Tony opened the curtains  to reveal a couple of booted and suiteds roaming up and down the road with metal detectors. the Chairman phoned me later that day and suggested I pay a nominal fee of £10.00 and they would hope to have it sorted in time for the next bill  I happily agreed.

 

 

Carole

[TheQ]

10 hours ago, Hylander said:

When we lived in Bahrain it hardly ever rained but there was always water in the taps,  granted you could not drink it but we went to a depot to collect the drinking water in a huge tank.   Well it seemed huge to me,  I was only 10.   I do believe the drinking water was desalinated.

 

 

 

 

And just across the water in Saudi bottled water cost more than petrol.

Some years ago they sent us a letter saying they were going to fit a water meter here.. , then they cancelled... We've never heard from them since.

[SwanR]

We’ve got a meter where we are. Don’t mind it really, it makes you think about how much you’re using … Just as you do on a boat. 🤭

[Bluebell]

Quite a few years ago, we had new build commercial premises in Norwich, obviously with a water meter. When the meter reader came round to do what meter readers do, he asked our warehouse manager where the meter was. He replied he didn’t know. After about 20 minutes or so searching he gave up, and we never did get a water bill…😎

BTW it turned out the meter was under the forecourt, where I parked my car…😂

[Chelsea14Ian]

I dont have a  problem  with a water meter.I do however have a problem  with water companies inability  to provide a good quality  service. 

[grendel]

as I work in a utility company (electric) you would be surprised at just how poor utility records are, some barely give more information that which side of a street the utility is, by the regulations we are supposed to record the utility location to within 0.1m (4" in old money) and as someone who has to put this record on the map, from sketches that are as dubious to their accuracy as it can possibly get (try showing a cable 1m from the kerb and 2m from the fence line behind the footpath to an accuracy of 0.1m when the footpath is only 2.2m wide- thats a regular occurrence, when I first started work in the industry, my task was drawing up the maps (by hand) and we used to go out with a senior draughtsman and use a cable locator to find the cable where we could. one of the older senior draughtsmen was a mine of information, he would tell you that in that region, all cables were originally laid 3 foot from the back of the footpath and 90% of the time he was correct.

the main issue is that if you dont know where your assets are, then when a contractor is digging, and requests 'stats' plans from all the utilities, you cant provide an accurate result, and then its down to you to fix your asset when they hit it, this is not so bad with water, as you just get wet, but with gas or electricity, people can be killed if they hit the asset.

naturally everything is supposed to be set at a regulated depth (or protected if that cannot be managed- we lay steel plate over cables laid shallow.) but some of the newer assets (fibre in particular) dont have a regulated depth, and our sub contractors have dug through fibre cables that were literally laid in a shaallow groove directly under a paving slab (2" deep), thats tricky as you put a spade in the gap to lift the slab, and then find you have already cut the  cable.

I now have a smart water meter, it was fitted without even bothering to inform me as my service was in the footpath, so they just went round and inserted meters on all the water pipes.

 

My sister had a big fight with the water company, as her neighbour is fed from the same pipe as her and tees off somewhere under her kitchen, the water company sent a notice that they would be fitting a meter, and my sister called them and explained it was a shared supply, so they assured her that a meter would not be fitted, 3 days later they came out and dug up her pipe and fitted a meter. more phone calls and red faces at the water board, and a week later they came out again and removed it (it is actually illegal for them to fit a smart meter on a shared service and they can be fined by the water regulator if they do so.)

[Andrewcook]

I believe the Water Company's are not taking in consideration more House being built and not enough investment in doing more underground Reservoir to cover these Summer water outages and putting up water Rates to cover the Shareholder's returns as mine is Essex & Suffolk Water Authority so as the Wimbledon Fortnight starts in July that might bring some rain? 

[MauriceMynah]

May I please suggest that the phrase "Shareholders bonus" and similar is used with a little more thought, and not to imply "fat cat shareholders" 

I think people may find that with things like utilities and oil companies,  the majority of "shareholders " are pension funds. So attacks on these "fat cats" are attacks on the pensions for the elderly and infirm... and me!

[Meantime]

7 minutes ago, MauriceMynah said:

May I please suggest that the phrase "Shareholders bonus" and similar is used with a little more thought, and not to imply "fat cat shareholders" 

I think people may find that with things like utilities and oil companies,  the majority of "shareholders " are pension funds. So attacks on these "fat cats" are attacks on the pensions for the elderly and infirm... and me!

Indeed the same is true of the greedy commercial landlords! In truth many of the out of town shopping centres and the likes of Lakeside and Bluewater are owned by pension funds whose performance shores up many private pensions.

 

[Chelsea14Ian]

Fair point  however I for one still think the water industry  needs  to be better organised. A bit like some  closer  to home.Supposely looking after our waterways. 

[MargeandParge]

On the plus side we normally drink straight from a tap in this country where (saves a lot of plastic waste) If you find the water a funny taste leave it in a jug in the fridge for an hour and that will disappear. 

Kindest Regards Marge and Parge 

[TheQ]

One of the farmers up our road dug horizontally from the road for a new field entrance...

He cut the telephone lines to this end of the village, they were buried not even six inches under the verge surface, and above both field and road height.

When sewers were fitted on this road, it can't have been far under the surface, in the winter you can see track of the sewers, as they frost up first..

 

[Smoggy]

The modern suction excavators are very good for shifting ground without cutting pipes and cables.

[TheQ]

On 18/06/2023 at 19:09, Smoggy said:

The modern suction excavators are very good for shifting ground without cutting pipes and cables.

Try that down in Horning especially near the Ferry, and you'll find the river level going down...