Water conservation....an idea which holds water?

[Tim_MaA_MidB]

Should be your own pee NOT someone else's as in "Friends". White vinegar is also good, but not often readily available on the beach.

Actually, I think the pee on a jellyfish sting is an old wives tale.

[cj]

Not merely interesting, Cath, but stylistically most elegant. Thank you for this post.

Cheers, mate!

[J.R.]

..... and blisters.

(Ar, memories of my Duke of Edinburgh's Gold Award !)

[BTaylor]

I'm all for conserving water. It would help if the water companies were as well.

Does anyone have the stats for leakage each day? I seem to remember it's something alarming.

[Richard Ruck]

I'm all for conserving water. It would help if the water companies were as well.

Does anyone have the stats for leakage each day? I seem to remember it's something alarming.

Try this - the latest figures here are for 2004-2005 :

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/sta ... iwkf13.htm

[eloisec]

I'm all for conserving water. It would help if the water companies were as well.

Does anyone have the stats for leakage each day? I seem to remember it's something alarming.

Thames Water loses 894 million litres per day in leaks, good to know when we get the stand pipes ...

I like it when Ofwat (?) says they should only lose 860 million litres a day. Only?!

[J.R.]

Have you seen what the five German directors of Thames Water's parent company earn a year ????

£20 MILLION.

PLUS

THE OPTION TO EARN A FURTHER £10 MILLION IN SHARE OPTIONS.

I thought the allies won the 2nd. World War. I must have been wrong !

Pass the Gravy boat, someone !

[midget]

Have you seen what the five German directors of Thames Water's parent company earn a year ????

£20 MILLION.

PLUS

THE OPTION TO EARN A FURTHER £10 MILLION IN SHARE OPTIONS.

I thought the allies won the 2nd. World War. I must have been wrong !

Pass the Gravy boat, someone !

I hate to query your use of language JR, but did I really read "earn £20 MILLION. Did you really mean EARN?

[Tim_MaA_MidB]

No one can blame someone for being paid £20mil whether they earn it or not...it's the people that pay them that much that annoy me.

[hoob]

Should be your own pee NOT someone else's as in "Friends". White vinegar is also good, but not often readily available on the beach.

Actually, I think the pee on a jellyfish sting is an old wives tale.

Not so sure, having had a mate who swore it work. But she also added that trying to pee on yourself is rather difficult.....

[cj]

Thames Water loses 894 million litres per day in leaks,

The Welsh also have an over-abundance of leeks...

[J.R.]

'Earn' might have been a bad choice of word.

Unfortunately, we all need water so we have to 'pay' someone.

I can imagine a woman trying to alleviate a jelly-fish sting by peeing on it as being rather awkward. Proves that women never really have been able to aim anything !!

[Tim_MaA_MidB]

I guess it depends where the sting is...but you can always pee into a towel first or something.

[Jude]

Cor blimey what a lot of drivel from you all -

1. Peeing on jelly fish stings is correct, it removes the stinging and alleviates the swelling - often you will need a man to pee on it if you are a woman.
2. in other threads I have been telling you all how to water your gardens using shower water from a bath - syphoning it out via the hosepipe into a water butt, and any other things like buckets to ensure you have water on non shower days - although if you have a teenager in the house it will be either all or nothing...
3. CLAY - if you have problems with soil holding water add some clay to it, here we live on clay and have no wretched option - we go from swamp to cracks in less than 24 hours......
4. Hanging baskets - line them with lots of newspaper (and no it doesn;t matter WHAT newspaper) it holds water bettter than moss, and ensures you do not lose as much water out of the basket.
5. Cars - cars only need washing when you have been by the sea (salt air) or in the winter when salt has been applied on the roads. There is no need to wash your car every week - it merely means you have a very boring life (or like my neighbour a nagging wife).
6. Compost as much as you can, add newspaper in small quantities, the worms like it (tea bags can go in as can coffee gounds - although the grounds are useful against slugs)
7. water the composter with any water - from the bath, washing bowl whatever, there is very little problem I have found as I do this all the time.
8. DO NOT USE A PRE RINSE on a dishwasher - it is a ridiculous feature and with todays tablets, liquids etc there is no nedd of a pre-rinse.
9. we never flush a pee away until the end of the day. if it's other , then flush. newer tanks don;t all cope with bricks or hippo's in the tank, it merely causes the cister to over fill - so, lower the ball-cock (NO RUDE NOTES PLEASE ) and then the cistern will only fill half way - a magical non costing you way to reduce your water loss.
10. shower - but put a time limit on it - if in a bath put in the plug and remove the water by syphoning (or if you are cruel get the kids to empty it bucket by bucket to the garden)
11. If you have a shower with no plug, then get a large cat litter tray or similar and stand in it, it catches most of what you wash in and then you can take it to the garden.
12. water from taps is ok to drink if you can tolerate all the chemicals, I personally filter mine, we keep water bottles in the freezer (and have done for as many years as I can remember) for lunches, days out etc to have cold water all day long.
13. If you don;t filter, but don't like the chemicals, pour out a jug of water from the tap, and let it stand for a couple of hours in the fridge - this removes (via evaporation) most of the chemicals - keep the jug topped up and you will always have nice water.
14. if you have a water feature in your garden that does not contain fish, then rather than top it up with water from the tap - use the bath water - it keeps the algae down, and (this is funny) it smells nice when you get the whiff of the fountain!
15. Get a meter - it doesn't cost to install, and it may save you over £200 a year - that was the 1st years difference when I moved from un-metered to metered.
16. keep your freezer full - if you can't afford to fill a chest freezer use boxes stuffed with paper, it cost's less when it's full thant when it is only ½full.
17. Make sure everyone knows about the fridge door - it only closes when you shut it.... ditto the freezer!
18. Use power saving lights (providing you can cope with the slight strobe they produce)
19. turn off tv etc at the mains, ditto computers etc...
20. recycle as much as you can - most smaller communities get money back for the recycled products which can then be put to spreading cost of compost bins and water butts....

I think that covers what we do here..... am going to bed now - as I'm tired, and there is no need for using lights so less electricity!!!

[J.R.]

WOW JUDE !

You ought to get your own advice column in a magazine.

As to your reply, No.1. I think you're right. I seem to remember someone telling me that it is possible to buy magazines devoted to that pursuit !