WATER SITUATION

T

trojan

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Two aspects puzzle me.Firstly we hear of urgent need to conserve water and then race tracks are watered and secondly weather forecasts some are saying heat wave to continue and others say showers and rain over the weekend.
 
Race tracks aren't likely to be sourcing water from the public supply, and it's that people are being asked to conserve due to dropping reservoir levels.
 
I think the rain on Sunday night is less than 1mm, will barely water the grass... looking at forecast it'll be towards second half of next week we might get some real rain on Wednesday and Thursday.

I am doing my bit by only drinking beer, wine and spirits and no water, ok maybe a few ice cubes :)
 
Maybe we could put meters on houses and charge people for what they use, over a certain amount. Do you think what would have popular support? No? Okay, we'll just keep complaining about it.
 
I wonder is it time to consider metering water and charging for it to help fund the very obvious infrastructural requirements? [EDIT: Sorry, Purple, I somehow didn't see your post!! Dehydration!!]
 
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Purple said:
Okay, it must be a bad idea so :rolleyes:
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Probably you would need some sort of surge pricing to kick in, and for that you would need metered use, but given that all major industrial and commercial water users are already metered, and surge pricing isn't mentioned as a tool in these heatwaves, it seems like a red herring to me now that I think again on it.
 
odyssey06 said:
Probably you would need some sort of surge pricing to kick in, and for that you would need metered use, but given that all major industrial and commercial water users are already metered, and surge pricing isn't mentioned as a tool in these heatwaves, it seems like a red herring to me now that I think again on it.
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The biggest industrial users are farmers so that won't be mentioned. Of course surge pricing should be used.
 
According to Irish Mirror Met Eireann say rain on the way. Maybe a few drops merited this headline or is fake news?
 
Depends on where you are...doesn't look like much or any rain for Leinster and Dublin.

https://www.met.ie/forecasts/national-forecast
Saturday night will be dry with just high cloud and light winds. Temperatures are expected to bottom out at 13 to 15 degrees.
It will be mostly dry with sunny spells or hazy sunshine on Sunday but showers are likely to affect western and southern areas, and later there's a signal for heavy showers to come up from the south to affect Munster.
 
The reason the weather forecasts are erratic is the low pressure to the south of us is meandering slowly and when it arrives it will mostly miss us to the south west. Two days ago the Met Eireann forecast for Leinster was something I'm not sure I've seen before -- not even a cloud, let alone rain, forecast for a week. They were predicting possible rain for next Wednesday but that's now been replaced by sunshine, with possible light showers for Thursday. I wouldn't expect too much regardless. The BBC forecast shows mostly sunshine in Belfast to our north all week, and a drop of rain for Cardiff to our east. The 14-day BBC weather forecast for Dublin shows no rain at all in the forecast period, which goes out to nearly mid-July.

The other astonishing thing is the monthly rainfall totals, available per weather station. Dublin airport had only one third of the 30-year average precipitation during May. But, with two days to go in June it has had an amazing 4.8 mm of rain. Last year's total for June was 86.4 mm and the 30-year average is 66.7 mm. This month's total is the sort of number you see in central Morocco and the Sahel / fringes of the Sahara! Much more of this and we will be in very serious drought conditions.
 
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trojan said:
According to Irish Mirror ..
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And according to Met Eireann :rolleyes: ?

If I want to know about Meghan Markle's new haircut, what Harry Kane has for breakfast or the latest shenanigans on Love Island, the Irish Mirror will be bang on the money. For weather, I choose professional meteorologists.

Met Eireann are currently indicating light rain showers for Dublin on Thursday, 6 days away. For Cork, Galway & Athlone, it's Monday, for Sligo, no rain forecast for next 7 days.
 
Perhaps we could have a major capital investment in the water infrastructure? Fixing all the leaks (some 40% wastage) would probably relieve a lot of the problems.

Also this country is dotted with lakes, and according to Wiki

Water resources are abundant in Ireland, with 82% of drinking water supplies in Ireland sourced from surface water (i.e. rivers and lakes) and 18% coming from groundwater – 10.5% from groundwater and 7.6% from springs. This high dependence on surface water is above the EU average.[16] Approximately 2% of Ireland's water resources are abstracted for human use. Unaccounted for water constitutes 41% of total water supply, followed by supply for domestic demand (39%), and non-domestic demand (20%).[17]

Why not invest in advanced water treatment plants and connect our abundant water resources and sell Ireland as a commercial hub for free water supplies? Ireland will be a magnet for foreign investment. The jobs created and taxes paid could sustain our free water system. It is our own fault that we do not ultilise this resource to its full potential.
Is it our fault that we have such an abundance of water?
 
TheBigShort said:
Perhaps we could have a major capital investment in the water infrastructure? Fixing all the leaks (some 40% wastage) would probably relieve a lot of the problems.
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That has dropped a bit to mid 30's and even the most efficient system in the world (california) has almost 20% "unaccounted" water.

Hopefully the Shannon pipeline gets the go-ahead without too much nimbyism causing delay
 
Purple said:
The biggest industrial users are farmers so that won't be mentioned. Of course surge pricing should be used.
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farmers are metered and have to pay for the water they use, also many farmers have their own wells. The biggest issue which of course we cannot talk about is that people do not pay for the water they use and much of the water is leaking underground from pipes underneath houses etc and bad plumbing. These things that are awkward to fix will not be done when people do not pay for this water
 
peemac said:
That has dropped a bit to mid 30's and even the most efficient system in the world (california) has almost 20% "unaccounted" water.

Hopefully the Shannon pipeline gets the go-ahead without too much nimbyism causing delay
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I think I heard somewhere recently that the Shannon pipeline has got approval. Although not sure at what stage it is at.

As for California, I would imagine that its climate is considerably dryer that ours? Also its population per sq.mile would be a lot higher too.
But if they have the most efficient water system, then we should endeavor to emulate that.
That would cost a pretty penny for sure, but Ireland could sell itself to foreign businesses as a hub for free, or relatively very low cost water.
The stuff is abundant on our island. All we need to do is invest sufficiently in the water treatment plants to ensure the best environmentally responsible waste water treatment.
 
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