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Save water please

Ystranc said:
Only that the need for them is fairly recent and they’re comparatively expensive to run compared to rainwater capture and reservoirs.
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Ah I get it now … we should have the money, we print the bloody stuff 🤔 we will have to wait and see if it’s on the agenda for the near future then
 
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I’ve just been reading the figures and with over 2000 industrial desalination plants across the US, each capable of producing over 300,000 gallons per day, they still only provide 2.4% of what they use nationally. More is wasted through leakage.
 
Hi folks

Mike is right desalination with current technology is prohibitively expensive.

Desalinisation is becoming a primary source of water in places like Saudia Dubai and Qatar where natural aquifers have been sucked dry and there is simply no alternative. The salinity of the Arabian Gulf is about 10% higher than surrounding seas as a consequence. Marine biodiversity is being killed off.

Trivia: Did you know Qatar is the only country on the planet with no naturally occurring freshwater on the surface? Bloody miserable place, but with the meagre consolation of natural gas spewing up through the desert sand.

Here in Aussie they do a bit of Desal in places like Perth where there isn't much alternative and coffers are replete. But I don't think it would make sense to desalinate as a stop gap strategy. Much cheaper to create more storage where you have reliable seasonal rains.

Alan
 
peteff said:
Water companies have been selling off reservoirs to developers for years grabbing quick cash safe in the knowledge that when the going gets tough they can ask for government hand outs. We are being shafted by all the industries that were privatised years ago to make them more cost efficient.
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I don't disagree with your sentiment but I'm a little unclear what is actually meant by developers and exactly what they do with the reservoirs they've brought. A reservoir is essentially a big hole in the ground or a dammed off valley , a large body of water. So what are these developers doing , I can't see them emptying them , knocking down the dam and building houses in the resultant valley or perhaps they are. Perhaps emptied they turn them into landfill sites. Used for leisure activities that water is still going to be there and surely there must be some powers to force them to release the water in times of drought?
 
Baytree said:
I don't disagree with your sentiment but I'm a little unclear what is actually meant by developers and exactly what they do with the reservoirs they've brought. A reservoir is essentially a big hole in the ground or a dammed off valley , a large body of water. So what are these developers doing , I can't see them emptying them , knocking down the dam and building houses in the resultant valley or perhaps they are. Perhaps emptied they turn them into landfill sites. Used for leisure activities that water is still going to be there and surely there must be some powers to force them to release the water in times of drought?
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I can't read Pete's mind but I would imagine that it has to do with price, take the major players in the power industry, they make billions in profits, pay their CEO's outrageous salaries and charge us the earth and the water companies are tared with the same brush. It's time that some of those profits were ploughed back into improving the infrastructure
 
I was struggling to understand just what in terms of development a large body of water can have done to it but it seems some at least are emptied and used as building land ,
Forget about that supposed link as I don't think it works , it just takes you to an app store rather than the report I have just read but sufice to say it gave at least three examples of reservoirs sold off for building land .
Another thought but wouldn't that land and thus the housing be liable to flooding and be a right pain to insure?
 
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Most of the water utilities have shares in each other and board members of one company may also be on the board of another, such is the case with United Utilities and Welsh Water.
As far as I’m aware all of the reservoirs in wales are in the hands of utilities and run by Welsh Water rather than private developers, moreover Welsh Water does not pay dividends and is a not for profit organisation. If you look at the buildings attached to reservoirs dotted around the Welsh countryside then you will find interesting historic plaques that show they were originally built by private companies or city councils elsewhere to provide for cities such as Cardiff, Birmingham or Liverpool.
 
Ystranc said:
I’ve just been reading the figures and with over 2000 industrial desalination plants across the US, each capable of producing over 300,000 gallons per day, they still only provide 2.4% of what they use nationally. More is wasted through leakage.
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Watching the news earlier, discussion on reservoirs replenishing etc, London built a desal plant 10 years ago fed by the Thames switched it off 2 years ago, why aren’t they using it now?
Because they let it go to shite, if they recommission it, it will be 2 years before they can produce drinking standard water, but the water from the plant being commissioned would be ECO enough to replenish reservoir levels,
Again, wasted money, plant & equip, won’t ever need to use it, yet all whinging about the drought etc.
Men, women, no f##kin toasters🙄
 
RWS Excalibre said:
Watching the news earlier, discussion on reservoirs replenishing etc, London built a desal plant 10 years ago fed by the Thames switched it off 2 years ago, why aren’t they using it now?
Because they let it go to shite, if they recommission it, it will be 2 years before they can produce drinking standard water, but the water from the plant being commissioned would be ECO enough to replenish reservoir levels,
Again, wasted money, plant & equip, won’t ever need to use it, yet all whinging about the drought etc.
Men, women, no f##kin toasters🙄
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Basically it is because Becton desalinisation plant uses enough electricity to power 42,000 homes at a time when electricity prices are at a historic high. Becton was built to be used in dire need after a succession of dry winters when groundwater would not be replenished and aquifers would be low.
 
“it will be 2 years before they can produce drinking standard water, but the water from the plant being commissioned would be ECO enough to replenish reservoir levels,”

*…but only if all the pumping stations are re configured, in effect reversed to pump water back uphill toward the reservoirs which is also energy intensive.

*Becton is mothballed but has been maintained, checked and periodically started up but it is an emergency resource which at best is only able to serve a tiny part of the capitol‘s needs for drinking water. (Approx 900,000 people out of a population of around 7,000,000)

* I’m not whining about a drought, I’m looking at the rivers around my home reduced to a trickle after having so much water extracted that fish are suffocating due to lack of flow reducing the oxygen levels…while a bunch of townies are whining about not being allowed to fill paddling pools. I suppose I am whining about a fairly massive ecological disaster but what the hell, who cares about a lot of dead salmon.
 
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I don’t know how many times I’ve heard, “ what’s all the fuss water is free” well it isn’t, it may run free but it’s not bloody free to use and it cost a lot of money from collection to consumption. I think @Ystranc is right there’s more to drought than not being able to use a hose, it’s a small sacrifice to pay in the hope that things don’t get worse
 
Total agreement with you both, but to install and not utilise is crazy, yes it is the townies again ‘me’ me’ me’, paying for it want it. The bigger picture is, stop whinging, we’re all in the same boat🤔
 
Sorry, while I’m on a rant, the f##kin Met office, thunder, a risk of flooding, yellow weather warning today in Norfolk, 🤔 bugger me had 10 min of drizzle at 13:00 at home, 5 min at site at 15:00 ish (30 miles away).
Couldn’t even get that right with all there technology,.🤯
 
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