Our older buildings have combined drainage for sewage and rainwater and this increases the amount of dirty water leaving our homes.  Newer buildings will be required to put in other ways to dispose of rainwater eg soakaways and attentuation tanks - only it appears that some of them avoid doing this presumably because of increased cost to the developer or client. Just think of all the ensuite bathrooms, shower rooms, inside loos, washing machines, dishwashers etc that people want and use nowadays that have been added to so many homes since they were originally built.  In older homes this will often mean that some dirty water is disposed of directly via rainwater downpipes as that is the easiest connection to make. I read recently that we have the highest per capita water use in Europe, probably because we have some of the oldest homes! All of our incoming tapwater is treated to drinking water standards and this is why some effort on the part of users -where they can - to reduce the amount of drinking standard water they use for watering gardens etc has long been promoted and certainly used to be far more usual than it seems now.  Universities have trialled installing water butts to houses along one side of a road to see what difference it would make and it has been proven to make a large difference. Privatisation or part privatisation of Building Control has also changed the relationship of developers and those charged with inspecting any works and perhaps also their understanding of how local buildings were built, historical events and topography of local areas. https://www.cibsejournal.com/news/privatisation-eroded-building-control-rigour-inquiry-told/ (CIBSE = The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers)  The link above was written re Grenfell but that horrendous event highlighted the problems caused all over the construction industry by deregulation.

Entire Thread

Topic	Date Posted	Posted By
Our filthy Thames	09/04/25 09:42:00	Richard Carter
Re:Our filthy Thames	09/04/25 10:30:00	Barbara Stevens
Re:Re:Our filthy Thames	09/04/25 10:49:00	Michael Brigo
Re:Re:Re:Our filthy Thames	09/04/25 11:10:00	Richard Carter
Re:Re:Re:Re:Our filthy Thames	09/04/25 13:49:00	Michael Brigo
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Our filthy Thames	09/04/25 14:59:00	Philippa Bond
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Our filthy Thames	09/04/25 15:18:00	Philippa Bond
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Our filthy Thames	09/04/25 16:41:00	Barbara Stevens
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Our filthy Thames	11/04/25 13:35:00	Philippa Bond
Re:Our filthy Thames	11/04/25 15:09:00	John Hawkes
Reply	11/04/25 15:44:00	Michael Ixer
Re:Reply	11/04/25 20:54:00	Ed Robinson
Re:Re:Reply	15/04/25 22:41:00	Philippa Bond
Re:Re:Re:Reply	16/04/25 01:37:00	Ed Robinson
Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply	16/04/25 07:50:00	Andy Pike
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply	17/04/25 17:47:00	Peter Higgins
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply	18/04/25 10:13:00	Philippa Bond
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply	18/04/25 22:41:00	Ed Robinson
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply	19/04/25 14:37:00	Philippa Bond

Forum Home