So... after a nice, wet April day - sorry, week, my thoughts turn to the upcoming UK summer of low reservoirs, dry streams, hosepipe usage debates, miserable farmers and overall drought conditions...
Which inevitably leads me to predict we're going to have a horrible cold and wet summer! Hurray!
But, regardless, I recall hearing an interesting 'fact' on the radio the other day where someone pointed out that by banning hosepipes for the use of washing cars, far more water will actually be used by resorting to buckets instead. Something silly like twice as much water is used this way.
But I guess it must be a bit like showering instead of bathing. If you use power showers (or shower for longer than 15/20 minutes), it's obviously going to cancel out the savings.
But not the time.
Will people find the time to bother with using loads of water-filled buckets to wash their cars if it takes ages to actually do?
Perhaps we'll find people using carwash machines at garages again? (A habit that has surely declined these past 10 or so years?) Apart from the pure vanity and silliness in most cases of wanting to regularly wash your automobile in the first place, perhaps some clever bod will be able to work out a way of recycling the water from garage carwash machines more efficiently and offer a great alternative to doing it at home? (or in Sainsbury's car parks!) It would then probably reduce the cost of the service too.
Which brings up my concern about water retention in water and sewage services in general....
The UK's decrepid and leaking water pipes account for far more lost water than the water we need - and can't afford - or aren't allowed to use - in times of drought.
We should be concentrating on a nationwide upgrade project so that these holes are plugged!
Which of course, won't happen in these austerity-hit times. Even if we'd probably all agree in a referendum that would be a good idea.
Instead, things like this are starting to happen:
http://www.stwater.co.uk/conWebDoc/3010
And so, whilst our resevoir levels go down... our water bills will continue to go up.
God help us.
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