rain

i have enjoyed the last week or so of rain. i love the rain - even though it means i have to play dodge the umbrella (i mean heaven forbid that anyone in charge of a bumbershoot that that is three times the size of a small garden would ever think that they should have to move it out of someone's way), even though all my trainers have holes in them so i end up with damp and soggy socks and even though it has meant that i have had to sit around in damp clothes for a large chunk of each day. i love the rain. i also love the fact that because it has rained a bit people start to wonder why we have drought warnings and hose pipe bans. it does make me wonder if people grasp some of the issues of climate change or even think about questions of dwindling resources. i doubt it. but then given london, alone, is talking about the need for over 360,000 houses over the next ten yeas - perhaps it would be safe to assume that the powers that be haven't really grasped the issues themselves. odd how in this time of growing bills none of the london candidates have turned their attention to the utility providers - such as thames water - and said that they would ensure that the provider works smarter and more efficiently in order to improve their profitability while reducing the costs to the consumer - the original selling point of privatisation. instead what we get is the utility providers upping the price in order that they can maintain their profit while also carrying out the maintenance that they be doing. must be great when you are virtually a private monopoly and can just hike those prices up. in the case of thames water - they shouldn't be allowed to increase their prices until such time as they had repaired all the leaks that allows water to gush out of their pipes. thames water has a leakage rate of over 25%, which is somewhat more than the 5% of water that will be saved by the hosepipe ban. on the one hand an environmental commentator has described their leakages as obscene, on the other hand a thames water spokesman is praising the efforts of the company by saying that their current leakages are lower than their 2004 high point, even though they are wasting more water than any other water provider in the country. their website has had to remove the claim that they repair leakages within 5-days. it does, however, tell us that the current drought has been two years in the making, so a few days of rain isn't going to save the day. i wonder how much better off we would have been if they had done better with their pipe repairs? not that they care that much as they have recently just put their prices up - so expect a nice profit announcement from them next time they give a financial report.