As you read this it is quite likely to be cold and rainy. Hard to remember that just a few short months ago we were sweltering in record-breaking summer temperatures, and in the middle of a serious drought. Hosepipe bans, the lot.
I even finally got round to fitting a rainwater diverter on my downpipe at home, and praying that the garden water butt might eventually get a few drops in it.
Across the Atlantic, things were even worse, and still are. In California, drought is a way of life, and almost all the water has to be piped in hundreds of miles from mountain ranges and rivers to the north.
But apparently a decades-long mega drought doesn’t stop the wealthy residents of Los Angeles from filling their swimming pools and watering their lawns.
Expensive metering, and fines for over-use, don’t have much impact for super-wealthy Hollywood stars. They will just pay up and keep their lawn sprinklers running.
So the water authorities have hit on the idea of fitting flow restrictors, which seem to have had a noticeable effect. Journalists say the only green lawns now are the ones which have been painted green (yes, that is something that really happens in the USA, apparently).
Flow restrictors have already been fitted on homes owned by numerous celebrities. A spokesman for the water authority said, “It doesn’t matter who you are, how well-known you are – all of you are being treated the same.”
The thing that I most noticed about these reports was Hollywood stars saying that the flow restrictors meant that they couldn’t use two things at the same time. For example, you can’t take a shower while the dishwasher is running.
This indicates that these stars’ mega-mansions must be all running on direct pressure, with no water storage tanks. Well, where have we heard these sorts of complaints before? – in UK homes fitted with combi boiler systems, of course. Want to take a shower while the washing machine is running, or even if your next-door neighbour is having a shower at the same time? – then you’d better get used to dodging in and out of the fluctuating hot-and-cold stream.
What many British people don’t realise is that the traditional UK indirect plumbing system became mandatory during and after the Second World War. Because of the problems caused by enemy bombing damaging water mains and reservoirs, it was deemed advisable for every home to have its own water storage cistern.
What a great idea. All those millions of little 250 litre cisterns added up to a total water storage the size of several huge reservoirs.
Now if only someone had told the Hollywood film stars about this. Then maybe they would still be able to take a leisurely shower at the same time as their maids are washing the dishes.
