Monday 28 March 2022: Saving water

 Monday 28 March 2022: Saving water

This week we’re going to be talking about ways in which Affinity Water can help and encourage its' customers to reduce the amount of water they use.  

Firstly, how much water do you think you use compared to the average?

A lot less than average.

Using a spreadsheet, I record the water meter reading every day. I know our daily water use, 7-day rolling average water use, and long-term average water use. Whilst our water use fluctuates from day to day, the 7-day rolling average and the long term average are, per person, about one-third of reported per person average water use.

Affinity Water could send households an alert to tell people that they have been using more water than normal. This higher water usage would need some investigation but it could be because of certain and unusual behaviours e.g. using a hosepipe or pressure washer for an extended period or because of a leak at the property. How interested would you be in receiving a higher water usage alert like this?

Highly interested.

As you are interested in receiving this high water usage alert please tell us what information you would expect Affinity Water to be able to provide and what action you think you would take as a result.

My average daily water use over a specific period. The average daily water use over the same period of other people in my postcode area. An invitation for me to consider: a) what water usage might have triggered the high water usage alert. b) what I might do to use less water and yet still achieve my goals

Is your household on a water meter, i.e. do you pay for the amount of water you use or do you pay for a fixed amount?

A water meter.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements about your water meter? 

"I know where my water meter is."

Yes, I do now, but did not for many years. No-one told me or showed me. The inspection cover that read "Water Meter" on it had a stop tap, not a water meter underneath it.

"My water meter is somewhere that it is easy for me to access."

No, it is about 60 cm below the footway beside the road beyond my garden.

"I would be happy to take weekly or monthly readings."

I take readings every day.

Affinity Water offer Home Water Efficiency Checks to their customers which provide a way for them to assess how efficient households are with their water usage and provide free water saving devices (such as tap inserts, shower heads and ‘save a flush’) and give tips on how to change behaviours.  How interested would you be in having a free Home Water Efficiency Check?

My response to this is disingenuous. On the one hand I feel highly motivated to save water, and would willingly listen to further ideas about how I might do so. Yet, I am already saving so much water that it is hard to imagine that there are significant ways in which I might save more by adopting gimmicks. Specifically, the amount of water that we save from going to waste is huge compared with the limited amounts such gimmicks would save. As I write below, the ways in which I could save significant additional amounts of water involve financial investment, not gimmicks.  

These Home Water Efficiency Checks can be done in person where an expert visits your home which means that they can install any water saving devices and check for leaks.  Or they can be done virtually via a video call which means that no-one needs to visit your home and any water saving devices would be sent out to you. Which of these options would you prefer?

I am all for reducing unnecessary travel: video-conferencing should always be the first option.

How appealing are each of these different elements of the Home Water Efficiency checks?

A leak check on your property?

A leak check would appeal if it involves identifying leaks that are invisible, e.g. underground or under the floor. On the other hand, if it simply involves identifying a dripping tap then I can do that for myself.  

Provision of free water saving devices?

I have one sitting on the desk beside me. It is a very small hour-glass containing blue sand. I am supposed to use it in the shower in order to limit my shower to 4 minutes. I can barely shampoo and rinse my hair in 4 minutes, never mind use conditioner, or actually wash my body. I do not have anywhere near enough showers to be able to have 'a quick rinse shower'. The fact that I limit my showers to two or three times per week, rather than the daily shower that I used to have when I was in full-time employment, is of some significance, as is the fact that I use the shower on it lowest-powered setting.

A second device involves a water-sensitive paper disk to stick on the inside of the toilet bowl to establish whether the cistern is leaking into the toilet. Mostly, I use a bucket of used-water to flush the toilet, and almost never press the flush on the cistern: the cistern is not leaking.

A third device looks like a miniature tea-pot cosy. It is intended to fit over an outside tap with a view to preventing frost from damaging the tap. For the device to be effective, I need to lag the pipe that supplies the tap. There is a second outside tap that requires replacing before a second miniature tea-pot cosy would make sense, as well as lagging the pipe that supplies it.  

The toilet cisterns are already dual-flush, so a device to limit the volume of water flushed would be superfluous.  

Having water saving devices fitted in your house?

What would make a valuable (although not significant) difference to our water use would be to replace most of the water taps with much better quality taps that are sensitively responsive to how much water flow is required.  

Tips and advice on how to change your behaviour?

When I was in my last job, I was required to attend an in-house coaching course. A significant part of the course involve teaching the participants to listen actively. I had been teaching this material for more than 20 years. Another in-house course I was required to attend was on mental health awareness. Whilst it was clear to me that many of my colleagues were learning new things, I had been teaching this material for more than 20 years, and found what we were being presented with highly simplistic, which reflected the poor level of understanding of the trainer. I could easily have taught the course much better, and indeed had written much more sophisticated material for delivery to staff across the organisation. 

I do not require tips on changing my behaviour, such as turning off the tap when I am brushing my teeth. What I require is someone to work with me in detail to plan and put into action the construction of a water reservoir so that I can collect / save thousands of litres of water.

Please briefly tell us a bit more about what you think about the idea of having a Home Water Efficiency Check.

I have no wish to appear arrogant (which means that I am certain to appear so), but if my per person household water use is already only 35% of average per person water use, then I believe that I am doing well. Every day involves monitoring water use, storing and re-using already-used water, and thinking about ways to use water better. I am not saying that I could learn nothing, but I suspect that the water-saving activities in which we currently engage are considerably in advance of the kinds of suggestions I have read to-date. It is off-topic, but the kind of advance in water-saving that I need to make is much, much more water storage, such as a large pond/small reservoir. Preferably, this would be combined with a ground-source heat pump so that I can reduce my use of fossil fuels, and a haven for aquatic wildlife. Such a scheme would be using water-saving as a springboard to greater protection of the environment.

Affinity Water are working with others to push for the introduction of mandatory water efficiency labelling on various products that use water e.g. washing machines, jet washers, showers.  In general how interested would you be in finding out how water efficient the products you use are?  

Highly interested.

And if you were considering buying any of the following products how likely would you be to take the water efficiency rating of the product into consideration when making a decision about which product to buy?

Washing machine. Yes.

Dishwasher. Yes.

Tap fittings Yes. 

Showerhead. Yes, provided that the water flow was not completely strangled.

Toilet flush. Yes.

Jet washer. Yes, although I do not have one, and may never do so.

Thinking about the different things that Affinity Water could do to help and encourage households to use less water, which do you think it should prioritise.  Please place the following in rank order from ‘1’ to ‘5’ -  where ’1’ is this issue you think Affinity Water should give greatest priority to down to ‘5’ which should be given the lowest priority. 

1. Increase water metering for all households

2. Encourage customers to read their water meter frequently.

3. Encouraging customers to take up the offer of high water usage alerts.

4. Lobby for mandatory water efficiency labelling on products

5. Offering free Home Water Efficiency Checks

Please briefly explain your reasoning for which areas you think Affinity Water should prioritise.

Without water meters, customers can make no serious long-term attempt to reduce their water use. There has first to be a metric, and only then can the effectiveness of personal efforts to reduce water use be measured. Without a water meter, saving water is just another fashionable thing to do for a while until the fashion moves on.

Monday 14 March 2022: What do I actually think about Affinity Water?

Monday 14 March 2022: What do I actually think about Affinity Water?

+ Affinity Water continues to supply me reliably with with clean mains water

+ Affinity Water appears to be concerned about pollution, and chalk streams in particular

- I am not confident that Affinity Water is building water storage capacity fast enough to avoid water supply deficits in the near future

- I am not confident that Affinity Water is renewing the water delivery infrastructure at anything like a sufficient rate to deal with the issue of lost water

- I am not confident that Affinity Water is actually making a difference to sewage pollution in chalk streams

- I am not confident that Affinity Water is preventing sewage pollution from reaching the sea

- Affinity Water does not appear to be doing anything to reduce the extreme 'hardness' of my mains water   

Monday 8 March 2022

 Monday 8 March 2022: Water Quality

1. Words / thoughts / emotions

• What words/ thoughts/ emotions come to mind when you think of good quality water? 
• Why?​
• How does bad quality water compare?
• Why?​

An evaluation of water 'quality' depends, in part, on intended use, in part on expectations, and in part on the distance between expectations and actual experience.

If I am parched, I do best drinking effervescent water with heavy mineralisation, such as San Pellegrino, which I experience as satisfyingly thirst-quenching. During long hikes on hot days, I have willingly drunk from mountain streams, no doubt infected with soil bacteria. Yet on similar such occasions I would experience tap water as worse than insipid, with a greasy mouthfeel, and lacking any capacity to quench my thirst. I also feel mildly nauseated by the sometimes chlorinous odour of tap water. Consequently, I very rarely drink tap water. I have some (mild) ethical objections to bottled water, but especially to bottled water that has been transported hundreds of miles from Lombardy (Italy), and as a result, only rarely drink water, preferring lemonade, a tisane or (in the evening) an alcoholic drink.

I prepare meals for my family from scratch three times every day, for which I use plenty of water . I require the water to be clean (both hygienic and free from particulate matter) and colourless, and if it smells chlorinous, then I am reassured that it is clean. I need to know that any cloudiness is due to air bubbles rather than particulate solids. The accidental poisoning of the mains water supply in Camelford, Cornwall, in 2012, and the subsequent serial cover-ups, remain fresh in my mind. Poorer quality water is also likely to smell bad, to not be colourless, and to have black bits in it.

I really do not like running a bath using mains water stained brown with peat from run-off over the Pennines during the late summer, although it is (I was assured by Northumbrian Water) perfectly safe. I expect water for bathing and washing to be clean (both hygienic and free from particulate matter), colourless and clear (not cloudy). I have rarely swum in British coastal seas because I believe them widely to be infected with sewage. I guess that these are examples of what I consider to be poor quality water.

I live in an area of very hard water. The build up of limescale is rapid, and our various water-using electrical appliances (kettle, vegetable steamer, coffee-maker, dishwasher and washing machine), as well as shower heads, require frequent descaling. Limescale destroys the shower mechanisms, requiring their replacement. I consider the extreme hardness of the mains water to be poor quality.

I use water for many other purposes for which pharmaceutical-grade water is not only not required but wasteful: flushing the toilet, washing the floors, and watering the fruit tress and vegetable plants. Plants prefer rainwater, yet rainwater contains dust that makes it unsuitable for drinking. I collect and store as much rainwater as possible. Using highly-processed, expensively-processed ("good quality") water in such circumstances may be unavoidable, but demonstrates a lack of sophistication of British society (both the general public and the water industry).

2. Overall, what ‘criteria’ would you use to describe good quality water?​ (consider attributes such as hardness, colour, clarity, taste, etc.)​

​For drinking: water that is clean, odourless, colourless, clear, heavily mineralised (hard) and effervescent (carbonated).

For cooking, washing and bathing: water that is clean, odourless, colourless, clear and unmineralised.

For the toilet: water that is sterile, odourless, without strong colour. 

For gardening: water that is free from artificial chemicals.

3 a) What are your thought about, and how do you feel about your current water quality based on your criteria?

I am unhappy about the hardness of our tap water, and its occasional chlorinous smell. On the other hand, the water here in eastern Kent has always been clear, colourless and free from particulate matter. On balance, therefore, not bad: I have experienced plenty worse.

3 b) When comparing your water quality at home to other places you have visited and lived in, are there any things that stand out?​

​In London, the water tastes disgusting, as though drawn from the Thames. In County Durham, water in the late summer has a brown colour and there are black bits in it (peat?)  

4 a) Thinking of the past 5 years have you had any issues with Affinity’s water quality?

​I am unhappy about the hardness of our tap water, and its occasional chlorinous smell. Nothing else.

4 b) If yes, please tell us about the issue, whether you contacted Affinity and what happened as a result.

I have not contacted Affinity Water about my unhappiness regarding water quality because I do not believe that anything would change in response. Were I to do so, I expect that I would receive a letter in response explaining why nothing could be done by Affinity Water to improve the situation.

1. How does hard water affect your day to day life (good or bad)?​

​2. Do you take any steps to manage the hardness of your water?​

• Please share any steps you may take e.g. Water softeners/ using products like Calgon/Kilrock in your washing machine/ routinely descaling your kettle etc…​

3. South East England is a very hard water area. Affinity does not currently soften the naturally hard water in it. Do you think they should? ​

• Why/ why not?​
• What do you see as the benefit(s) of softening it?​
• What do you see as the challenge(s) of softening it, if any?​
• Do you see any benefits of having hard water?

I live in an area of very hard water. The build up of limescale is rapid, and our various water-using electrical appliances (kettle, vegetable steamer, coffee-maker, dishwasher and washing machine), as well as shower heads, require frequent (not simply "routine") descaling. Limescale destroys the shower mechanisms, requiring their replacement. I am unhappy about the hardness of our tap water. Having lived for much of my life in County Durham with tap water that is low in mineralisation ('soft'), the transition to an area with heavy mineralisation of the tap water ('extremely hard water') has been difficult. I do not like having to use powerful chemicals to descale our electrical appliances with some frequency, nor do I care for the progressive reduction in their efficiency as the limescale builds up. My wife objects to the unsightliness of films of limescale on transparent and reflective surfaces.

I am aware that heavily mineralised water is healthier to drink than water with low mineralisation. Mineralised water is reported to lower the incidence of heart disease. On the other hand, I do not enjoy the experience of drinking tap water, and consequently rarely do so. Besides, if I desire the mineralisation for its health benefits, I could drink San Pellegrino bottled water which I really enjoy.

On balance, I should considerably prefer that Affinity Water took action to reduce the level of mineralisation of my tap water. I do not know what challenges doing so would pose. However, from personal experience of the difference between living in a 'soft water' area and an extremely 'hard water' area, taking such action would lengthen the life of a variety of water-using domestic appliances.

Within Affinity Water’s area are significant rare wildlife habitats and environments – our natural chalk streams. When water is softened and then released back into the environment, it would contain chemicals from the softening process that are likely to damage the environment and endanger these chalk streams. Also, higher mineral content waters, like hard water are linked with reducing heart disease and  higher mineral content means fewer chemicals introduced artificially to the supply.

​1. After reading this, how does it change your views about Water quality in general? Please explain your answer​

Ever since relocating to eastern Kent, and experiencing the very high level of mineralisation of the tap water, I have considered having water-softening equipment installed. I have not done so because the installation would be costly, and its use would require routinely paying for chemicals that reduce the level of water mineralisation. ​If I could afford to do so, I would have the equipment installed. If I am willing to have the equipment installed in my house, then I am not going to object to the equipment being installed at a fresh water treatment plant.

As mentioned above, I am well aware of the 2012 incident at the Camelford fresh water treatment plant. A significant part of the resulting problem was the 16 days when the water company failed to warn local residents of the accident so that they could take appropriate action, and also the subsequent attempts to 'cover it up'. This is about water company diligence and candour, not about the use of chemicals. 

Water softening equipment does not release chemicals and/or their degradation products into the general environment, they release the chemicals into the *waste water system*. All manner of chemicals are introduced into the waste water system, and have to be dealt with by waste water treatment. Water-softening chemicals should be no different.

The statement strikes me as a form of 'greenwashing' - failing to invest in technology that would improve the efficiency and life-span of water-using domestic appliances on the basis of wishing to avoid releasing chemicals into chalk streams. It seems to me to be an attempt to distract attention. I have a deep affection for the River Chess in Buckinghamshire, and am distressed that sewage releases have made the river unsafe for growing its wonderful watercress. I hope that action to remedy this issue issue is being prioritised. 

2. How does this statement change how you feel about Water softening, if at all? Please explain your answer.​

​Perversely (from the perspective implied from this section of questionnaire), the questions have strengthened my desire for softened water. I have wilfully ignored the extent of the obvious problems caused by the very heavy mineralisation of our tap water. Your questions have made me face them again. As a result of your questions, I have arrived at the opinion that it is Affinity Water's responsibility to supply mains water that is fit for purpose, and the extreme 'hardness' of my tap water makes it less fit for purpose.

3. Lastly, in light of this information, how does it impact your views toward the water quality provided by Affinity?​ Please explain your answer.

Three things:

1. I have been reminded about how unhappy I am about the 'hardness' of the mains water supplied by Affinity Water (in comparison with the 'soft' water supplied by Northumbrian Water). I am now clearer in my mind that it should be Affinity Water's responsibility to soften the water so that my tap water is fit for purpose, and also to ensure that water softening chemicals (and their degradation products) get treated appropriately in the waste water treatment process.

2. I am unhappy that Affinity Water appears to be considering using 'greenwashing' to evade doing anything practical about the 'hardness' of my tap water.

3. I have been reminded about how deeply unpleasant it was in County Durham to be supplied with water that sometimes looked unclean, and sometimes had black bits in it. In contrast, the apparent cleanliness of the water supplied by Affinity Water is welcome, and should not be taken for granted.  

Monday 21 February 2022

Monday 21 February 2022

Three questions, as suggested:

1. How much is Affinity Water worth (how much would it cost to buy the business)?

The purpose of this question is to attempt to calculate how much it would cost to renationalise the UK water industry.

2. How much clean water does Affinity Water supply? What proportion of clean water does Affinity Water supply from a) runoff (rivers); b) reservoirs; c) ground water abstraction? How much water reservoir capacity does Affinity Water control? How much water does Affinity Water supply to a) domestic customers; b) business customers?

The principal purpose of this question is to establish some metrics. However, I also believe that Affinity Water both has too little reservoir capacity and abstracts too much ground water leading to depleted aquifers and  incursion of brackish water into coastal aquifers.

3. What is the breakdown in water loss from: a) main water leaks; b) dripping taps; c) water wastage (e.g. failing to turn off the cold water tap while brushing one's teeth?

The purpose of this question is to establish a sense of scale. I am all for people turning off the cold water tap when they brush their teeth, but I believe that the quantity of water wasted pales into insignificance compared with water escape from burst or leaking water mains that have not been renewed from their installation a century or more ago.  

Monday 7 February 2021: What my typical week looks like

Monday 7 February 2021: What my typical week looks like

This week we’d like to talk about what a typical week looks like for you. 

As well as your normal routine, please tell us about any water related tasks and activities  e.g. laundry, washing up, bathroom use/showers, gardening, drinking water/tea etc…

I am not sure how to spend only five minutes on this task. Whilst I shall try to do so, I feel sure that the result will be so incomplete a picture that a wide variety of contradictory conclusions would be equally plausible. (This following paragraph took me an hour.) 

Whilst there is some variation for me between work days and week days, much of that is due to the reduction in traffic on the local lanes. Most days are interchangeable. A day begins with medication between 05:30 and 06:30, making my litre jug of (caffeine-free) infusion for the day, and my wife's pot of tea for the day. Two full kettles of water boiled before the start of eye-watering priced daytime electricity. I feed the cats and unlock the cat-flap, releasing them from their night-time imprisonment in the utility room. I empty the dishwasher, run almost every day overnight on the cheaper-rate electricity. I leave the washing in the washing machine, also run overnight every day, because my wife sometimes has to put the clothes through an additional rinse (which uses astronomical amounts of water). Then it is out for a brisk six mile walk along the local lanes. Back home again, I read the water meter, and then prepare my breakfast (slices of home-grown beetroot on slices of toasted home-made bread spread with mustard). Computer administration. Provided that it is not raining, I tog up for an hour of two in the vegetable garden, or chain-sawing wood for the heating. For lunch, I frequently make a pan of soup made with vegetables from the garden (today it will involve potatoes, chard and courgettes, with peas and lettuce from the supermarket). Then more computer administration. Mid- to late-afternoon I am back in the garden again. In the summer there is a lot (more than an acre) of grass to be mown in the newly-planted orchard. I move stored water around in buckets, sometimes carrying half a ton of water to irrigate my young trees. Until the farmer mended the fence last year, there were sometimes escaped sheep to corral away from eating my trees. In the winter I might lay and light a wood fire. Then I cook the evening meal, using as many garden vegetables as possible (last night: roasted potatoes and beetroots, broccoli and Brussels sprouts from the garden, but the carrots, parsnips and nuts were from the supermarket). I cook everything from scratch, which usually takes about 45 minutes, but on a Sunday this might demand anything up to two and a half hours. I dread the oven being on for a couple of hours because I monitor our energy usage very closely. Monday morning is the time when I record on a spreadsheet and submit to Good Energy the (split tariff) electricity readings, and measure/record the amount of heating oil left in the tank. On the other hand, I read and record the water meter reading every morning. My wife and I have baths early on Friday evening - a long, hot soak, with Epsom salts and Co-op bath foam, accompanied by an interesting book (important to have a handkerchief to hand in order periodically to demist my spectacles). The bath water is saved for use as grey water, such as flushing toilets. My daughter (disabled) is showered on Saturday and Tuesday mornings, and my wife and I shower a couple of times during the week, more frequently in the summer. Husbanding the careful use of time, water and electricity are important features of my day. After the evening meal, I might programme the bread-maker to bake a loaf overnight, and I might put soya beans and pearl barley to soak in order to make fresh plant milk in the morning. If I am not too tired, I might watch a DVD, but the chances are that I shall have fallen asleep before the end. My day usually ends between 22:30 and 23:30, with my various night-time medications, and brushing my teeth (but not leaving the cold water running).

Thinking back to before the pandemic, what would a typical week consist of? As with your previous answer, as well as your routine, please include water related tasks and activities e.g. laundry, washing up, bathroom use/showers, gardening, drinking water/tea etc…

My pre-pandemic week was much the same as it is now. On the other hand, the pre-pandemic weeks of my wife and daughter (who is clinically extremely vulnerable) were very different, much more varied, involved spending time at an arts and crafts day centre twice a week, paid carers coming to the house on weekdays to help wash, dress, feed and work with my daughter, so that my wife could work in the garden; make preserves (cordials, jams, marmalades, chutneys and pickled vegetables); knit, mend and sew clothes. Once a month we might take a trip out, perhaps for a walk along a seaside promenade, or visiting a heritage location. We have been in almost total seclusion and isolation for almost two years now. Our use of water then and now are identical.

Having reflected on a typical week in 2019 and a typical week now, what do you think are the changes, big and small, in your water behaviours, and why?​

In your answer please tell us:​

• What you think the biggest changes are​
• What some of the smaller changes might be​
• What various factors may have driven these changes between 2019 and now

The principal change in my water behaviour between then (2019) and now (2022) has been to monitor my/our water use using the water meter, recording daily readings on a spreadsheet, and accounting for every fluctuation. This was due to the mains leak which ran from about September 2020 until March 2021. On the other hand, we were always very careful with our water use, and assiduous about storing and using grey water as well as rain water. A question that has not been asked is whether our water behaviour is/was influenced by water company exhortations to avoid wasting water. Simply, no. Whilst I read those exhortations, our clean water use (155 litres/day for three of us) is far, far lower than average, and if offered the opportunity, I would be enthusiastic to have a small reservoir in order to be able to store winter rainfall for summer use in the garden/orchard. (Had we built our own home, which was the dream ten years ago before relocating here, then a reservoir was part of the plan.)