News / save water
Water Butts help protect rivers from sewage
Raw sewage is pouring into our rivers and coastal waters regularly, all across the country. The government got a lot of backlash this week when it voted down an amendment to the Environment Bill, that would have demanded water companies stop releasing sewage into our waters on a regular basis.
I've learnt quite a bit this week about the issue, and one thing stands out is that a major reason for the sewage releases is that the pipes can't cope after heavy rain, so the sewage is released into rivers, otherwise it would start flooding out onto residential streets from manholes. This is because the rainwater shares the same pipes as the sewage. I have made another post a month or so ago about how water butts can help prevent flash floods, and clearly they are a solution in reducing the chance of sewage spills. This is because, using my original example, of a 10,000 homes, if each are fitted with a 200 litre double water butt kit (the bestseller), then that would hold 2 Olympic swimming pools worth of water, after heavy rain. This means that all that rainwater is not going straight into the sewers, so it reduces the chance they will fill so quick, resulting in a raw sewage release into the rivers and coastal seas.
I have not heard anyone mention this as a quick and easy solution to help the problem. Considering raw sewage is not just poop and wee, but anything that goes down the drains, including bleach, household cleaners, hair dye, medicines etc, it's a massive issue. Only 14% of English rivers are classed as being in a good ecological standard, according to the Ennvironment Agency in 2020. Yet another good reason to buy a water butt!
Water Butt news - Low rainfall in May
After last summers heatwave it was predicted that there could be a hosepipe ban in summer of 2019, if it was also dry. Despite the summer of 2018 being a scorcher there was no hosepipe bans as the reservoirs were at good levels due to high rainfall the previous spring and winter. As you can see from below, the current river flows are being described as below normal or lower for this time of year by the Environment Agency.
"Weekly bulletin: Wednesday 22 toTuesday 28 May 2019 Summary: It has been another dry week in southern and central England but a wetter week in northern England.River flows remain below normal or lower for the time of year at the majority of indicator sites."
The Met Office has reported that May's rainfall was only 45% of the average.United Utilitie, that supply water in North West England, has said current reservoir levels are slightly lower than normal.
It will depend on rainfall in the coming weeks and how warm it is, as to whether or not there will be hosepipe bans. A water butt is a great idea to preserve water for your garden and allotment. They can collect rainfall from drainpipes from house roofs, shed roofs and greenhouse roofs. Various size options are available from 100 litres to 1050 litres. All include drainpipe diverter kits plus GB delivery and can be ordered here, in the
Grow Your Own section.
