Thames Water is losing 894 million litres of water every day through leaks, as the residents of Adamson Road well know. Last week a burst water main in their street was left unfixed for an entire week. Goodness knows how much water was wasted. And yet Thames Water have imposed a hosepipe ban and are talking about applying for a drought order. As one resident of Adamson Road told me: “It is frankly sickening not to be allowed to use a hosepipe in our gardens and at the same time see enough water being wasted to maintain a tropical rain forest.”
Thames Water recently announced a 31% rise in pre-tax profits to £346.5m. Surely some of that could have been spent on fixing leaks? The main action the company seems to have taken to decrease leaking is to reduce water pressure resulting in serious service problems in many parts of London, especially for those in tower blocks.
I have written to OFWAT, the water regulator, asking them to be a lot tougher on Thames Water in future. But even if they are, we still need to do more as a community and as individuals. That’s why I want to see all new developments in Camden obliged to install rainwater collection systems. I also intend to explore ways to encourage Camden’s households to capture rainwater for use in gardens and toilets. The combination of global warming plus unacceptably poor performance by Thames Water means we have no choice but to take action ourselves.
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