For many generations now, most of us in Britain have taken the supply of clean and safe drinking water, most usually to taps within our homes, as a matter of fact. This has not always been the case and it was only towards the latter end of the 19th century that such supplies first became available.
Prior to this, the only available supply of water would have been the local spring, stream, river, well, or, in larger towns and villages, a pump. Frequently the water was heavily polluted with all manner impurities as watercourses were used as sewers as well as sources of water and drinking water from most natural sources would have resulted, if not in death, then certainly in serious illness.
We have, for several generations, seen the drinking of alcoholic beverages such as beer and cider as a recreational activity but, before the advent of safe drinking water, brewing was a necessity, the alcohol in the beer, wine or ale killing the harmful bacteria, and every yeoman's wife would have been adept in the art of brewing ale. Many inns and public houses brewed their own ale (as some still do) and even small towns had many breweries. At the turn of the 19th century, the rising number of Londoners consumed four times as much beer as was consumed in the whole of the United Kingdom at the turn of the 21st century.
The industrial revolution led to the demise of cottage industries and centralisation of production in the factories of the towns and a consequent migration of population from the countryside. The rapid growth of the towns led to serious water supply and sewage treatment problems, particularly in the largest connurbations such as London.
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The rapid growth of towns during the industrial revolution led to chronic problems of water supply. With London's population growing rapidly (doubling between 1800 and 1850), the owners of the Grand Junction Canal realised that their waterway could also be used as a water conduit and built a pumping station at Paddington Basin to supply water to London. The canal water proved to be too polluted and the company closed it in the 1820's, building another pumping station at Chelsea.
The Chelsea works could not cope with London's need for clean water so the company built a new pumping station upstream at Kew in 1838 using a Bolton & Watt steam engine with a 1.6-metre cylinder to raise 590 litresof water with each stroke. This again proved inadeqate and, high pressure steam engines not yet being available, another engine was built utilising a 2.4-metre cylinder.
see also: Canals
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The Water Industry Act of 1999 allows water companies to fit a meter when a property is taken over by a new occupier provided that an umetered water bill based on the rateable value has not been previously sent to the new occupier.
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In some cases the stop-cock box in the street has to be changed to allow the fitting of a water meter.
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The Act refers to the consumer and not the
owner allowing the water companies to meter rented properties
without the consent of the owner unless plumbing alterations are required or if the tenancy agreement is of less
than six months duration.
Most Commercial premises had already been metered by 2002 and most water companies seek to meter the
remaining unmetered premises. The majority of commercial premises are metered internal because the external
supply pipes are shared.
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The water supply companies promote metering on the grounds that it encourages water conservation and identifies
leakage on private property - they cite government initiatives to protect to protect the environment and reduce
energy consuption.
By saving the amount of water used, less has to be treated and pumped, thus saving chemicals and electricity.
These conservation measures lessen the impact of the water companies' operations on the local environment and
defer the need to develop expensive new water resources.
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The South-West of England has the highest water bills in the country primarily due to the historical under-investment and traditional reliance on the use of sea outfalls for waste water.
Major improvements and treatment works on all the sea outfalls were necessary to comply with the EC Bathing Waters Directive and the British government decided that this work in the region should be paid for by the customers of South West Water - the vast capital programme to improve water quality at thirty per cent of the designated bathing beaches in England and Wales is met solely by only three per cent of the country's population and local industry.
Major new European Standards are likely to be imposed which could result in even more significant costs to those living in the region.
| The average water and sewerage bill amounts to as much as 9% of the single person's state pension � a greater proportion than anywhere else in England. |
| - Ofwat SW |
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