Hosepipe ban as from 22 July – next week

Thames Water are now imposing more restrictions on their customers here despite having jacked up their annual charge by some extraordinary inflation-busting multiple. We will have to stop using hosepipes as from 22 July. A recent dry spell, but preceded by a long very wet period that ceased only weeks ago.

Sure, we’ve had a dry(ish) spring and so far, a warm summer. Our monthly weather reports bear this out. But we pay Thames Water an increasingly exorbitant amount for them to supply our water and take away our waste water. They provide a service, a monopoly and one that is non-competitive yet they are unable to deliver even the basics – a consistent supply, whilst also not polluting our rivers. They can’t manage that, even though their managers are paid enormous bonuses for their (lack of) performance. Even recently getting their bonuses paid out of the emergency funds supplied to the company to stop Thames Water going into Liquidation (ironic…!).

The argument will be that they didn’t foresee the future – heat and dry periods – but why not? They have been paid enough to be competent. But since the late eighties, whilst we have all paid increasing amounts for the basic services, and – we believed – the updating of infrastructure that should ensure consistent operation, much of what we paid was extracted by investors (Australian bank Macquarie being notable) in dividends, so there was minimal (and insufficient) investment to maintain even the basic services. To our cost and shareholders / managers gain

None of this is new. But whilst we have had a dry and warm recent spell, prior to this spring there was rain. Lots of it. And for a very long period (a year or more) it seemed to rain just about every day. Last September was the wettest September on record. But Thames Water were unable to keep this excess water that fell out of the sky, letting it flood (as we in Marlborough experienced to our cost at the start of last year) or just drain away. So thanks to their incompetence, short-sighted business approach and greed, we get hit.

And we have no other option – if we refuse to pay, of pay less than the demand because they are delivering a severely sub-standard service, we get fined, or even worse. And they are ‘regulated’ by a supine authority – ‘OFWAT’ that is there to try to persuade the company to deliver a service that just meets some of the very basics – i.e. water to flow out of most taps – whilst being held hostage to fortune by the company regarding their charges.

So from next week, don’t use your hosepipe. Water the gardens with a can, wash the car with a bucket, but still keep paying Thames Water what they demand. Do their managers have to observe these hosepipe bans? Probably they live in areas unaffected……

Rant over, but likely another to follow, soon……..