The Hosepipe Ban

So the rain stayed away and the majority of the 2.9 million households and 7 million people in the north-west now have to contend with a hosepipe ban from Friday (9 July), despite the best efforts of United Utilities to eke out their dwindling natural resources to gardeners struggling to keep their plants alive.

But what does a hosepipe ban really mean? Is it now a civil offence to use one?

Thanks to the drought laws, the answer is no. Even under a hosepipe ban there are still lots of permitted hosepipe uses. Of course, you aren’t allowed to water the garden with one, or to wash the car but here are just a few of the things you can do:

• use a hose or pressure washer to clean paths, patios, boats, windows, garden furniture, barbecues and
much else which is neither private garden nor private car
• use a hose to fill ponds, paddling pools, swimming pools and other containers
• use a hose to wash down pets, horses – or with a spray head to take showers outdoors
• use a hose with a backflow prevention valve to fill livestock drinking troughs
• use a hose to put out a fire
• use a hose to mix cement or for any other DIY job
• use a hose for childrens’ play

So why is it possible to fill a swimming pool but not to water the vegetables that put food on the dinner table?

Well, don’t blame it on the water companies. They can only enforce the law – which dates back almost half a century to a time when pressure washers and much else hadn’t been invented. However, no water supplier should be giving the false impression that all hosepipe uses are prohibited.

The good news is that new legislation was passed in April this year to bring hosepipe bans up to date. It’s the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 and instead of offering just two prohibition options, it lists a number of sensible restrictions that a water company can impose – although it is not obliged to impose any of them.

And in what should be better news for gardeners, it gives water companies new discretionary powers to grant exemptions from hosepipe bans, for example to the elderly or infirm, to certain types of water-saving irrigation equipment such as drip irrigation systems and even to allow night-time watering during a hosepipe restriction.

The new Act includes the following precise wording:

'A water undertaker need not ban a specified use of water entirely. It may limit the scope of a ban by, for example, excluding specified groups of customers and apparatus and restricting the use of water at specified times only.'

If that sounds more like the civilised society that you thought we lived in, don’t get too excited. The new law, which the policy makers and regulators have been working on since the 2006 drought in the south of England, has still not yet been enshrined in industry regulations so United Utilities can’t use it. Instead, they have to fall back on the old legislation.

But for the record, here is the full list of possible prohibitions from the new Act:

• watering a garden using a hosepipe
• cleaning a private motor-vehicle using a hosepipe
• watering plants on domestic or other non-commercial premises using a hosepipe
• cleaning a private leisure boat using a hosepipe
• filling or maintaining a domestic swimming or paddling pool
• drawing water, using a hosepipe, for domestic recreational use
• filling or maintaining a domestic pond using a hosepipe
• filling or maintaining an ornamental fountain
• cleaning walls, or windows, of domestic premises using a hosepipe
• cleaning paths or patios using a hosepipe
• cleaning other artificial outdoor surfaces using a hosepipe

In the future, a water company seeking to impose a hosepipe ban can elect to prohibit one or more of these specific uses but cannot prohibit any use not on this list. So even if all the options are enforced, there will still be a number of hosepipe uses which cannot be banned.

Britain’s leading supplier of garden watering equipment, Hozelock, says there should never be any need for a
complete hosepipe ban. 'Modern drip watering systems systems like the Waterwise-approved Aquapod use 90% less water than a watering can so there can be no rational argument for banning their use,' says Marketing Director, Simon McArdle.

He went on: 'The trouble with such a blunt instrument as the traditional hosepipe ban is that it punishes gardeners who have done the responsible thing by converting to water-saving irrigation equipment.'

Over 80% of all the water wasted in the garden comes from uncontrolled sprinklers, according to Hozelock.

'When water is scarce, a sprinkler ban makes sense,' says McArdle, 'but other hosepipe restrictions are of
questionable environmental value.'

How to save Water

Hozelock has created a hose ban information page on its website at www.hozelock.com/water-restrictions.html and will update it as the situation changes.

Among its suggestions for gardeners looking to consume less water is the Waterwise-approved Aquapod ready-to-use drip irrigation system used with a tap timer to ensure that the water turns on and off punctually.

Gardeners are also urged to fit an Aqua Stop connector to the end of their hose so that the water supply cuts out as soon as a watering device is disconnected. No-one should be using an open hose, they say. Fitting a multispray gun to the hose ensures that water only flows when the trigger is held down.

And for gardeners already subject to a hosepipe ban, the best way to avoid traipsing around the garden with dozens of heavy watering cans is to submerge a Hozelock Water Butt Pump into your stored run-off water so that you can distribute it with a hose, just as easily as connecting to the mains supply. In addition, consider mixing some Water Storing Gel into your growing media: the gel will retain excess water releasing it slowly to plant roots – so saving up to 90% of the water you would normally use.

Facts and Figures

Only 6% of annual household water consumption goes to an outside tap (which is classified as a non-domestic use) and yet there are no restrictions on the use of power showers, washing machines, dishwashers or indeed any wasteful uses of water inside the home because the water companies have a statutory obligation to supply water for domestic use.

In fact, domestic outdoor taps account for less than 1% of all abstracted water, the remainder being used in
agriculture and industry, currently without any restriction – plus of course the huge volume being lost in leaks from the water companies’ own pipes.

According to Defra’s latest statistics for 2008-9, 3,291 megalitres (724 million gallons) of water were lost every day through leaks and breakages in the water companies’ pipe network.

Average domestic water consumption in the UK was 148 litres (32.5 gallons) per person per day according to Defra’s latest (2007-8) figures. Therefore the leaked water could have provided the daily needs of 22.2m people or 35% of the population.