Letter: Fixing Leaks Is Not Enough

Published on: 21 Dec, 2023
Updated on: 21 Dec, 2023

From: Mark Stamp

In response to: Can Our Water Services Cope?

At the public meeting last week, it was suggested by Thames Water that their priority for increasing the amount of supply available was to fix leaks in the system. Whilst Thames does have terrible leakage rates I fear this will not be sufficient to plug the shortfall.

With forecast wetter winters and longer periods of drought there needs to be a better plan. One of the things that should be mandated is building grey-water systems into new homes, why are we flushing toilets with water treated to a level to be drinkable?

Although this should be done at a national level GBC could be encouraging it through planning policies but they seem reluctant to put any policies in place that go beyond the national minimum on this or other topics such as energy efficiency which would save homeowners money.

Responses to Letter: Fixing Leaks Is Not Enough

Olly Azad Reply

December 22, 2023 at 12:25 am

Leaking pipes are not the only issues that Thames Water needs to face up to, although I appreciate that this is an important topic.

However, this company continues to dump billions of litres of sewage waste into England’s rivers and sea. It sounds bizarre to me that Thames Water wants to stop spillage from their network of pipes but have no hesitation whatsoever to allow raw sewage to pollute and affect the natural world? I would urge Thames Water to balance the needs of consumers whilst ensuring that wildlife can exist too. Surely this mission is not impossible for them.