Apart from a long period of low rainfall over the last two years (climate change? what climate change?) our water companies, sold off by the wonderful Mrs Thatcher (wait while I wash my mouth out with soap), have appalling records on finding and fixing leaks. It is said that up to 60% of the water that passes through the pipes leaks out before it gets to its destination. Thames is one of the worst.
Once a fortnight or so I pass a leak in the pavement, and until last week I assumed that before I passed that way again someone would have reported it.
Well, maybe they did, because last week I decided to do so, and STILL it is unreported. Two efforts to report it via their website failed, and a phone call produced a rather snotty assertion that I must have the post code wrong, as young Darren couldn't find either street on their system. (Sorry - Station Road? And its busy junction Loampit Vale, part of the A21 along which the Olympic torch will pass in a couple of months?)
Twitter has been as useless. It's taken me several days of insisting on an email address so I could write the problem out in full before someone finally tweeted me one that worked. Everyone else kept sending me links that either didn't work, or didn't include the option of "complaining about service when reporting a leak".
For this "service" they expect the average household in my street to pay in excess of £360 per annum.
Glad I've just had a meter installed.
Apparently, we're losing 300 million gallons a DAY. Gee, I wonder why we have no water?!! It also kills me that, as an island, apparently it's now beyond the wit of anyone in the British Isles to notice we're surrounded by bloody water, or to consider constructing a desalination plant or a pipeline to take water from 'wet' areas to 'dry' ones. Our Victorian forefathers must be spinning like tops in their graves at our wonderous inability to do anything about anything, other than wring our hands and spend years wondering what to do next.
ReplyDeleteWhat's a hosepipe? Is that like our garden hoses? So basically you guys aren't allowed to water your lawns? You can always trust the govt. to mess things up!!!
ReplyDeleteWow you're going to have to wash you mouth out without water. I tell you bureacrates(sic) are idiots the world over.
ReplyDeleteJoJo, I wish I could blame the current govt, but since Thatcher (same shitty party) sold water off, it's down to private enterprise. Which is really efficient, as we all know...
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