In article ,
"George" writes:

"Jonathan" wrote in message
ups.com...
Following the recent flooding, we are thinking of buying a pump so
that we can pump out our ground floor if it ever happens again. I
would also like it to be able to pump water from the river to run my
garden irrigation system, which has a series of small sprinklers.

I think these are two quite different pumping requirements,
and I doubt you'd cover both effectively with the same pump.
Bear in mind that you might not have an electricity supply
during a period of flooding, so you might want to consider
a direct petrol driven pump, although a couple of people
killed themselves from the fumes with such a pump in the
recent flooding. Installation of suitable piping so the
pump can run outside might be worth considering, but
remember to allow for a certain water level outside.

You need a licence to abstract water from a river/pond/ditch
etc. and I really doubt you would get one for this purpose
(or at least, you wouldn't be allowed to when you really
needed to).

Can anyone recommend a pump at a reasonable price to meet these need?
The catalogues have so many that I don't really know where to start.

Not what you want to hear or being sarcastic but I know if I was living in a
flood area and knew it was going to be a reoccurance I'm afraid I would be
selling up and moving to new pastures,nothing worse than having your home
water damaged and possesions destroyed and having to go through the turmoil
and wait to get it bac to normal living requirements and then find it'll
repeat itself all over again which is apparent because of you're thinking
that way.

The OP appears to be planning to prevent such damage, which
is to be encouraged.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]