water

Did you know that you could by-pass Thames Water and get your own supply of water simply by drilling your own borehole? That’s the good news. The bad news is that you may have to drill a long way down, and it could cost you a small fortune. The depth required varies according to where the water table is, but 50 metres down is usual. However, it can cost as much as £15,000. As long as you draw less than 20,000 litres a day, then you don’t even need a licence. In fact, the powers that be will be glad you’re taking it. The reason is that all those industries that used to draw huge quantities of water are long gone. So for the past few decades the water table has been rising beneath the South East. London Underground have to remove 36,000,000 litres of water every day! And it can’t even be used as it’s ‘contaminated’. So the pressure relief of your borehole would be welcomed. Get drilling!

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TOO HOT TO TOUCH

It’s not commonly realised that scalding can take place at a lower temperature than some might run a bath. It actually happens at anything above 45 degrees C. Comfortable bath temperature is around 38.5 degrees C. Bathing children is a little lower at around 37 degrees C.

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DON’T LIKE THE TASTE OF CHLORINE?

Then just leave your glass of water standing for half an hour, and the chlorine will evaporate off.

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Water Use

The following figures are for 'per person - per week' and are applicable for someone living in the South East of England. For other regions subtract 7%

Toilet Flushing: 375 litres

Taps (basins, kitchen): 282 litres

Bathing: 162 litres

Washing machine: 140 litres

Shower: 90 litres

Dishwasher: 49 litres

Garden tap: 18 litres

Other: 4 litres

Total: 1,120 litres

I believe this to be a conservative estimate, seeing as one bath (up to the overflow with an adult in it) is around 90 litres. The above figures suggest less than two baths per week for the average person, and equally frugal use of the shower! Some people have two baths a day. 1,120 litres is enough to fill more than eight average garden water butts. And remember, that's per person. A family of four would therefore use 4,480 litres a week, 233,000 litres in a year.

Now let’s compare that chart above with a typical US citizen:

Toilet flushing: 490 litres

Taps: 287 litres

Bathing: 32 litres (!)

Washing machine: 399 litres

Shower: 308 litres

Dishwasher: 27 litres

Other: 295 litres

Total: 1,838 litres

It would appear that US people much prefer showering. It would also suggest that they wash their clothes a lot, have good showerheads, and have less dishwashing to do.

A system of drinking water is surely a sign of progress, of advanced social state. And although we take it for granted, it is precious. But there are moves afoot to curtail our use of water - from 150 litres per person, per day, down to 125 litres. I believe this is wrong. Not too long ago we were a nation with contaminated and limited water supplies. Let's not go any way back towards that, not even an inch. Let us instead remind ourselves that we are an island, and one of the wettest countries in Europe. Depriving ourselves to any degree is a backward step. And remember this, milk production uses 1,000 litres of water to produce just one litre of milk. If you want to save water - give up milk!