I used to be dismayed, when studying your article about hosepipe bans resulting in tradition wars (‘People are scared their neighbours will call the police on them’: how the hosepipe ban got caught up in the culture wars, 23 July), by the half that mentioned: “Why has the ban been put in place, anyway? The answer, as with so many things, is the climate crisis.”
No, it’s not. The local weather disaster is simply a part of the reply, and doubtless the smaller half. The privatised water firms have, over a few years, privileged the liner of their very own pockets over correct upkeep and enchancment of the water techniques, a reality which has been revealed time and again in your individual pages.
As a end result, hosepipe bans are wanted way more typically than they might be if we had been simply local weather change as a trigger. Indeed, the article goes on to mirror a few of these sentiments, however they arrive from the gardeners who had been interviewed.
If we go on referencing local weather change and “unusual conditions” to excuse the despicable behaviour of the water firms, we’re colluding of their nice fiction.
Gillian Metheringham
Stroud, Gloucestershire
The key to the difficulty of hosepipe bans being wanted is unquestionably the privatisation of the water firms. They extract large sums in dividends for their homeowners – largely investment funds not based in the UK – whereas failing to reside as much as their duty to keep up the water provide community. Ofwat has no efficient powers of enforcement, it appears.
The new prime minister ought to contemplate imposing a really giant tax burden on water firm shareholders to fund the substitute of previous pipes and the constructing of latest reservoirs. Our water payments are the best they’ve ever been, our want for water is bigger than ever, however leaky pipes are inflicting a water scarcity.
As for datacentres, they need to by no means be allowed to take precedence over such a basic human want. If synthetic intelligence is so essential, let the techies discover one other solution to cool their servers.
Dr Gillian Austen
Bath
I used to be disillusioned that your article on hosepipe bans didn’t point out the exemption for golf courses and car washes. What insanity permits a whole lot of hundreds of litres for use to water barren areas of golf programs and preserve a automobile clear?
I wish to preserve my flowers and greens alive, for the bugs and for meals. Allotments ought to have exemptions, as ought to wildflower meadows and ponds for wildlife. Why ought to I be involved a couple of golf course? I’m critically apprehensive in regards to the neglect of our pure world and those that reside in it.
Christine Pedder
St Albans
It was unhappy to examine disabled folks taking flak for hosepipe guidelines which have been in place for a long time, and folks lamenting misplaced crops. But we gardeners have an enormous duty to cut back water use. Harvest rain – our many water butts lasted till final week; use a bowl to reuse washing up and rinsing water out of your sinks; be selective in deciding which crops to water; mulch! And if a plant dies, exchange it with a drought-resistant various.
Graham Jack
Harrow, London
If water firm bosses don’t adhere to the spirit in addition to the letter of the ban on bonuses, don’t count on me to stay to the ban on hosepipes (Water bosses’ pay rises despite bonus ban and public fury over bills and pollution, 24 July).
Toby Wood
Peterborough
