Hosepipe ban

Living in the South East I get a hosepipe ban in a couple of weeks. Great!

Flicking through AutoExpress in Smiths earlier they did a report on how much water you actually use washing a car. They've uncovered that the figures quoted by the water companies as justification for banning hosepipes for car washing is that they use 300 litres of water. But that's calculated on the basis that you take 30 mins to wash the car, and that you leave the hose running for all that time, most of it down the drain.

Who these days doesn't have a trigger spray/jet/powerwash which only consumes water when you actually want it! So for most of the 30 minutes, you're actually consuming no water.

So they washed a car using a hose with a trigger jet and it was something like 30 litres used. By comparison, they then washed a car using buckets - like we'll have to do come April - and because you can't target the water properly like you can with a hosepipe, it actually uses more water than the hose!

So by banning me from using a hosepipe to wash my car and forcing me to use buckets, South East Water are actually going to make me use more water

More here: Hosepipe ban doesn’t add up | News | Auto Express

I already have a water meter. Single person in a 3 bed house, even with car washing and garden watering, I only pay £11 a month.

I grew up in Durham so no problems for the first few years of my life courtesy of some forward planning by the water board in the 1960s & 70's. They built Kielder and a series of massive tunnels to connect the Tyne to the Wear and the Wear to the Tees. So they can get water from Kielder down to Middlesbrough no problemo. Just need to connect a few more rivers together.... I did read somewhere about a suggestion to use the canal network???