Water shortages in London

RandallFlagg

Thames Water are facing some challenges after the thawing of the recent snow and ice.

This qoute from someone on Twitter made me laff:

”There’s no water in north London and Thames water is handing out bottles like it’s a 3rd world country”

I note in the pic in this story (scroll down) that the shelves are empty of bottled water but there appears to be plentiful supply of pork scratchings and Coca Cola.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-43279633

  

Phil_aka_Pip

plenty in the Thames

AlexC

London water tastes like pork scratchings anyway.

Fretwired

Most of the pipework is Victorian ...

Guitar_Slinger

Most of the residents don't eat pork.

not_the_dj

Shouldn’t take the piss out of it......but I wish somebody would. 

Ba dum, tish 

Bucket

All I want to know is whether or not I'll be able to have a shower tomorrow.

Philly_Q

No water here in SW16 since Saturday evening.  It came on for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon - very low pressure - but then died again.

Guess I'll have to work at home tomorrow....

ICBM

I wonder how much money Thames Water shareholders have taken out in dividends since privatisation... and whether that would have paid for upgrading the network so this didn't happen.

Phil_aka_Pip

ICBM said:

I wonder how much money Thames Water shareholders have taken out in dividends since privatisation... and whether that would have paid for upgrading the network so this didn't happen.

I think you're right but in mitigation the task of fixing London's waterworks would be so astronomically expensive (considering the inevitable traffic disruption) that nobody wants to attempt it.

ICBM

Phil_aka_Pip said:

I think you're right but in mitigation the task of fixing London's waterworks would be so astronomically expensive (considering the inevitable traffic disruption) that nobody wants to attempt it.

That's not mitigation - it's further proof that it's a job for government. Privatising water was pure political dogma, and simply put public money into the pockets of private speculators.

Phil_aka_Pip

I agree privatisation was political dogma and IMO quite the wrong thing to do. But even for a government (especially our shower of incompetents) it's a mahoosive task. I wouldn't want the job. At least not without a huge and mean army to enforce my way of doing it!

Kebabkid

Our Streatham office is closed today because of it but our King's Cross one (new development) is open.

This is just nuts!

rawk100

Water Companies usually allocate a certain amount of money for mains renewals where the older/weaker mains are replaced as a matter of course. However the freezing and thawing can make the ground expand/contract and shift which can damage the pipework which is buried in it. It doesnt have to be an old pipe either, ductile iron pipes are used for new mains but these can still be damaged by the shifting ground. HPPE pipe is a bit more resilient but can still suffer.

57Deluxe

now you wish you had shoveled all that snow into buckets 'just in case'!

Philly_Q

57Deluxe said:

now you wish you had shoveled all that snow into buckets 'just in case'!

It would be useful for flushing the toilet, that's for sure....

Philly_Q

It's starting to get just a little annoying now.

If the answer is "we have no fucking clue when your water will be back", don't say "in a few hours" or "around 5pm".

dano

More joys of living in an over populated city

Garthy

ICBM said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

I think you're right but in mitigation the task of fixing London's waterworks would be so astronomically expensive (considering the inevitable traffic disruption) that nobody wants to attempt it.

That's not mitigation - it's further proof that it's a job for government. Privatising water was pure political dogma, and simply put public money into the pockets of private speculators.

And pension firms. 

RedRabbit

Philly_Q said:

57Deluxe said:

now you wish you had shoveled all that snow into buckets 'just in case'!

It would be useful for flushing the toilet, that's for sure....

It's what I've been doing since Wednesday.  It's quite eye opening as too just how much water flushing the toilet actually uses.

Philly_Q

RedRabbit said:

Philly_Q said:

57Deluxe said:

now you wish you had shoveled all that snow into buckets 'just in case'!

It would be useful for flushing the toilet, that's for sure....

It's what I've been doing since Wednesday.  It's quite eye opening as too just how much water flushing the toilet actually uses.

Sadly all our snow had melted before the water went off on Saturday, apart from a few little scraps here and there.

Since it would take me the best part of an hour to get to the bottled water collection point and back - assuming there's even any water there - my toilet remains rather unsavoury....