The Wild Ewt of the Plains of Canada ([personal profile] ewt) wrote2003-08-19 08:56 am
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Grah

Something burst on the North Cricular and we have no water.

Of course, finding water bottles in the NW area is now going to be nearly impossible as well.

Apparently alternate supplies are arranged for mid-morning. Are they going to bring us big water bottles in trucks or sommat?

Damnit, I'm thirsty now, too. I'm sure I wasn't before I found there is no water.
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[identity profile] -banshee-.livejournal.com 2003-08-19 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
That's certainly an annoying situation to wake up to.

::Hoping you get water... and soon::

[identity profile] phelyan.livejournal.com 2003-08-19 04:16 am (UTC)(link)
Do you have watercoolers in the office? That'd probably be a big help.

[identity profile] ex-purplekaz150.livejournal.com 2003-08-19 07:05 am (UTC)(link)
We have a couple of bottles of Evian left but I don't know how long they're going to last.

[identity profile] wintrmute.livejournal.com 2003-08-20 03:42 am (UTC)(link)
Well, if you bothered to have rainwater tanks at your houses, this wouldn't be a problem... :)

[identity profile] ewtikins.livejournal.com 2003-08-20 04:24 am (UTC)(link)
A few points in response:

1) You probably couldn't pay me enough to drink London rainwater, or at least not until I got VERY THIRSTY INDEED. On my way to work I get a good view of the horizon, or the un-horizon as it often is - the air quality is quite poor and I don't want to drink anything that has passed through that without cleaning it thoroughly first.

2) We do have a rainwater butt. If the water hadn't come back today then I would have used that water to 'flush' the loo, as it wouldn't be clean enough to drink or wash with. Normally I use it to water the vegetable bits of the garden if it has been dry and the veg are looking poorly. In the winter it often overflows because there is so much rain.

3) With the exception of the other night it has not rained here for a few weeks, which is exceptional for London, and even if everyone had two rainwater butts, there probably still wouldn't be enough water for most Londoner's usage of water.

4) How many rainwater tanks fit on a 10-storey block of flats? I suspect that in some places in London there is not the horizontal surface area to collect enough rainwater for the inhabitants of that area. I'm not saying this is right, but it is the reality for many people.

5) [livejournal.com profile] redcountess was mentioning about how the water used to flush toilets in London is recycled back into drinking water. I don't know if it would be at all efficient for individual dwellings or buildings to have the resources to do this safely. Given the amount of water available this is certainly an infrastructure problem rather than a scarcity problem, at least on an acute level.

But yes, water management here is in general rather silly and wasteful. You'd think the stuff fell from the sky or something.

If I had the go-ahead from the landlord and the funds to do it, I would be installing greywater systems for flushing the toilet, getting a bendy pipe for the toilet so it takes hardly any water at all, fixing our stupid plumbing so that it doesn't take LOADS of water to not clog (we had to take the water-saving device OUT of the toilet because the tank is too small and there was not enough water going through the pipes and they kept backing up), and taking various other measures to increase water efficiency.

I don't have either the go-ahead from the landlord or the necessary funds.

It is something that will be a priority when I have settled down a bit more and have more direct control over my living space.
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