What about surge discounts during leaks?
Water companies in England and Wales explore ‘surge pricing’ during drought
Submitted 3 days ago by okwithmydecay@leminal.space to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk
Comments
waz@feddit.uk 3 days ago
Admetus@sopuli.xyz 3 days ago
Data centres getting surge pricing ja?
tenebrisnox@feddit.uk 2 days ago
You can see why they’re making a lot about water scarcity in the media now.
It’s about time we should start pushing back and saying that some things are a basic human right like air, water, food and energy (certainly at a subsistence level) which should be provided without cost.
HerbGrower@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
I do like the idea of first x number of units are free to all. So essentially that means drinking water at home is free
Eh_I@lemmy.world 2 days ago
No no no, the free water is for the data centers. We get the expensive water with stuff floating in it, along with a high-usage fee for using the water while we’re at home in the evenings when the data centers need it most.
Was any of the water hot, or heated at any point? Tsk tsk tsk, that’s a hot water fee.
MouldyCat@feddit.uk 2 days ago
Making all domestic usage free sounds great but we do have to encourage reasonable water use. (And energy use.)
Getting rid of the standing charge is an important first step IMO. At the moment it effectively means people with low water usage are subsidising those who use lots of water.
I’d like to see pricing that gets more expensive the more you use. So if you only use what you need for your particular household, you pay a very low price per unit, if not entirely free, and the price per unit keeps increasing the more a household uses per person.
Neocorporation@lemmy.world 2 days ago
It’s literally the same story every year. Water companies complain of droughts during the hot months, proceed to not do anything during the winter months. Since I was a kid, I can remember the same headlines of droughts during the summers of 2000s etc. What does the controlled government do? Absolutely nothing… Complete fraud and corruption for many decades.
tal@lemmy.today 2 days ago
IIRC, some substantial construction on new reservoirs did happen recently, after a long—heh—drought.
goes looking
premierconstructionnews.com/…/holcim-uk-awarded-s…
Holcim UK Awarded Supply Contract for UK’s First Reservoir in Over 30 Years
Holcim UK is delighted to announce its appointment by Future Water MJJV Ltd to supply essential materials for the construction of the UK’s first reservoir in over 30 years – Portsmouth Waters’ Havant Thicket reservoir. The reservoir is an environmentally-led project that will help to safeguard internationally rare chalk rivers in Hampshire by providing an alternative, sustainable source of water.
The reservoir, which is being delivered by Future Water MJJV Ltd, a joint venture between Jones Bros Civil Engineering UK and JT Mackley & Co Ltd, is expected to be completed by the early 2030s. It is estimated to take approximately three years to fill and will have the capacity to hold up to 8.7 billion litres of water, playing a crucial role in enhancing water security for the region.
gov.uk/…/government-steps-in-to-build-first-major…
Government steps in to build first major reservoirs in 30 years
New reservoirs will supply three quarters of a million homes and unlock the building of tens of thousands more as part of the Plan for Change
Neocorporation@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I acknowledge this year a new reservoir is being built but the first in 30years completely proves my point no?
boaratio@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Ahh, enshittification finally comes to water.
Arola@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
TBF, all our rivers brown lumps in them, so the enshitification is nothing new. I stopped paying my water bill in December - I am in a fortunate position to not give a fuck about the consequences but I really wish there was more of a French-style reaction to getting bummed by our political leaders in the UK.
ximtor@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
I want to know more about this situaton of not giving a fuck about paying bills
boaratio@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Ahh, the great stink. Legendary. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stink
HerbGrower@slrpnk.net 3 days ago
Wouldn’t mind if we got cheaper non surge rates tbh. Looking at my garden or allotment and hosepipe bans I was thinking what if I was to store up water in an IBC tank before a drought.
So far I haven’t really done anything to reduce water usage, it just doesn’t seem worth the cost. Underground rainwater tank, even if I dig the hole for it myself, would require filling and emptying 1000s of times to pay for its self compared to just using a hose pipe. Or if there is a pipe ban, filling a wheelbarrow a few times.
Garden came with water butts so I do use those. But looking at how little they hold for their price I can’t see how it is worth it. Even the large ones hold less than £1 worth of water. Plus a house uses as that much water each day normally anyway?
Grey water collection could be interesting. I have loads of grey water waste during drought that could potentially be useful. Can that safely be dumped straight onto the garden though? Most things I find suggest not to, shame as it would be fairly easy. Even just plonk a gutter under the pipe exist points from the house and direct it to the garden.
Denjin@feddit.uk 3 days ago
Can that safely be dumped straight onto the garden though?
As long as you’re not using antibacterial agents, bleach or things with parabens and phosphate you’ll mostly be fine.
Its pretty minor to switch to “biodegradable” soaps if you don’t use them already and then you can just dump your bathwater straight onto the garden no problem.
HerbGrower@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
I had always heard you shouldn’t eat stuff watered with grey water
Buckshot@programming.dev 2 days ago
We got our water butts free on local Facebook groups or marketplace. You’re right though, they don’t store a lot. Our outside tap is somehow unmetered so i mostly use that anyway. The water butts ran out weeks ago. No hosepipe bans here (north west).
HerbGrower@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
Yeah there are no hose pipe bans where I live too, although I am somewhat aware of trying not to use it excessively too.
My garden the grass can die and will come back when it rains so that gets nothing normally. In plant beds its all drought tolerant stuff like rosemary, its doing OK though I am giving them a little water once or twice a month.
Saving the water butts for plant pots and newly planted cuttings. For that they seem to be lasting OK. We are expecting rain this week at least. I suspect things like rosemary would have grown a lot more if I watered them more, but they will survive just fine without too.
Grey water collecting feels like a more sensible option to look into. Most households use over 100L of water a day, only the toilet being water you don’t want to reuse could give you a small water butt per day in water. If I do I hope it can be a DIY project.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
Isn’t that illegal? If not, it should be.
NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
Just in time for the data centers to dohble our national consumption
Denjin@feddit.uk 3 days ago
Anything to keep the gravy train rolling.
Cherry@piefed.social 3 days ago
The f they will.
tal@lemmy.today 2 days ago
I’m kind of curious how it compares to some of the cities here in the US.
:::spoiler Thames Water, London, UK
www.thameswater.co.uk/help/…/metered-customers
We’ll send you a bill every six months. Your bill will show charges for every cubic metre (m3) of water used.
One cubic metre equals 1,000 litres which is an estimated 25 quick showers. It costs £2.7346 per m3 for clean water and £1.4721 per m3 for wastewater as of 1 April 2026.
Fixed charges for 2026-27
Once we’ve calculated your clean water and wastewater charges, we’ll add fixed charges. These cover our essential costs, such as pipe maintenance and bill and payment processing.
Type Fixed charge Fixed charge with surface water drainage rebate Water £66.87 Not applicable Wastewater £128.13 £80.43 :::
:::spoiler San Diego, California: a city located in a semi-arid region which depends partly on desalinated water.
www.sandiego.gov/…/water-billing-rates
Each HCF equals 748.05 gallons.
The monthly charges for a typical single-family domestic customer are:
Base fee: $35.53
0 - 10 HCF used are billed at $8.51 per HCF.
11 - 22 HCF used are billed at $9.50 per HCF.
Each HCF used after the initial 22 HCF is billed at $11.89 per HCF.www.sandiego.gov/…/sewer-billing-rates
Single-Family Residential Customer
Base Sewer Fee for Two Months $22.56
Sewer (rate per HCF**) $5.92Maximum Fee: Base + Sewer (fee capped at 20 HCF/month) $259.36
:::
:::spoiler New Orleans, Lousiana: a city located at the mouth of the Mississippi, as London is located at the mouth of the Thames:
www.swbno.org/…/RatesFeesAndCharges
These guys charge a fixed fee based on the size of the meter. It looks like residential meters normally are either 5/8 inch, 3/4 inch, or 1 inch.
Water monthly fixed fee:
Meter Size Rate ($) 5/8 8.69 3/4 10.64 1 13.50 Water usage fee:
Usage level Rate per 1,000 gallons ($) First 3,000 gallons 5.80 Next 17,000 gallons 9.87 Next 980,000 gallons 7.76 Over 1,000,000 gallons 6.50 Sewage monthly fixed fee:
Meter Size Rate ($) 5/8 24.87 3/4 35.40 1 50.38 Sewage usage fee:
Per 1,000 Gallons: 8.66
:::
At a current currency conversion rate of $1.3565 for £1, and with a cubic meter being 0.35314667 HCF and 0.26417205 thousand-gallons:
Six month residential water cost:
Source Fixed Six-month Water Fee (£) Per cubic meter (£) Thames Water 66.87 2.73 City of San Diego (starting rate) 78.58 2.22 City of San Diego (maximum rate) 78.58 3.10 City of New Orleans (lowest rate) 38.43 1.23 City of New Orleans (maximum rate) 59.71 1.27 Six month residential wastewater cost
(for Thames Water, taking into account the rebate, and for San Diego, disregarding the limit that may be charged a customer):
Source Fixed Six-month Wastewater Fee (£) Per cubic meter(£) Thames Water 80.43 1.47 City of San Diego 49.89 1.54 City of New Orleans (minimum rate) 110.00 1.69 City of New Orleans (Maximum rate) 222.83 1.69 So, looking at that, a few things stand out. First, London is an old city, and I’d vaguely imagine has a lot of elderly sewers and such that might cost a lot to maintain. Going into this, I had guessed that infrastructure was maybe where any major Thames Water cost was coming from. But actually, the fixed sewage costs aren’t that much higher than San Diego (a relatively-young city), and are considerably lower than New Orleans’ fixed sewage costs.
And the Thames Water per-usage sewer rates are lower than the rates in both American cities.
Fixed water rates are in-between New Orleans and San Diego. I’d expect that some of San Diego’s fixed costs need to go to things like the San Diego Aqueduct system, to bring water from the closest sources of surface water, which isn’t something that’d be needed in London. But I’d also imagine that London has its own complexities, like older infrastructure.
The per-unit water usage rates for Thames Water, on the other hand, are relatively high — towards the upper end of San Diego’s per-unit usage rates, and as I said, San Diego relies in part on desalinated water, which should be more-expensive as a source than surface water (and which London could certainly hypothetically avail itself of). Thames Water per-unit rates are also much higher than those in New Orleans.
Flamekebab@piefed.social 2 days ago
Could we perhaps explore more reservoirs? There’s loads of urban decay that could be replaced with water storage.
wiccan2@thelemmy.club 3 days ago
All water companies should be nationalised immediately, water is not a product.
What are we supposed to do when the water companies don’t put any investment into improving the situation. Constant leaks, a steady flow of new houses being built but no increase in our capacity to store water.
What choice will we have under these rules when the companues charging us are able to manufacture scarcity through their inaction.
yakko@feddit.uk 2 days ago
Every necessity of life, including economic and educational necessities like transport and data, should be publicly owned and provided free or as cheaply as practicable. Anything else is a one-way ticket to absurdity.
tenebrisnox@feddit.uk 2 days ago
100%. We need to push back on the idea that everything should be commidified and sold at a profit for a tiny minority of the already-rich.
omgboom@lemmy.world 2 days ago
That’s a problem for Q2 2027