"Chris Hogg" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 3 Aug 2018 13:35:23 +0100, "NY" wrote:

"Chris Hogg" wrote in message
. ..
What you need is a septic tank. You pay for the water you use, in the
usual way, but not for its disposal, so total payments are roughly
halved compared to normal. And in the extreme, you have a source of
nutritious but smelly water for the garden if things get really
desperate. Not that I ever needed to use mine for that, and I wouldn't
recommend it for the veg garden!

That assumes you have access to the outflow from the septic tank, and a
way
of pumping the water uphill from underground to above ground level to the
garden.

Open the inspection cover; lower in bucket on a rope; haul up filled
bucket, pour onto plants. Not that that's any easier than filling a
can from a tap, harder in fact, but I did say it would only be
appropriate in the extreme, for example if water was becoming so
scarce that whole areas of the country were being rationed and
stand-pipes were introduced.

I've never dared open the inspection cover of the septic tank. On a scale of
1-10, how bad is the pong, typically? What is the consistency of the
contents? Is it mainly liquid? I suppose it must be to be able to dip a
bucket into. I've always been a bit apprehensive of septic tanks and
cesspits after the farm where my parents used to store their caravan lost
one of their sons in a tragic accident: he went missing and the lid of the
tank was found to be off - he'd somehow fallen in. I can't think of a worse
way to die...



I'd forgotten how close we came to having standpipes in 1976. We lived in
Wakefield (*) and there was news footage of a "drought minister" at a
standpipe somewhere nearby (for some reason they chose Wakey for the news
photo opportunity). And with a few days to go, the heavens opened and the
drought minister became a flood minister.

I remember going on a summer school course near Windsor, and a) all the
windows had to be kept wide open to stop use melting, which meant teaching
was interrupted whenever a plane took off from Heathrow, and b) we weren't
allowed to use the swimming pool because they weren't allowed to keep the
statutory x% of fresh water flowing into it to mix with the majority which
was recirculated.


(*) I'm not sure where Wakefield gets its water from, but I presume it's
reservoirs rather than underground aquifers.