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First Casualty

P

Paul Murray

Senior Member
Some you may know the River Gade in Cassiobury Park, Watford . Twenty odd years ago it was a fine roach water, but it has been in gradual decline since, reducing to a small stream - although even recently it has thrown up the odd barbel to 8lb.

My wife has just sent me this picture from the river this morning - it has now stopped flowing under the parks ''Wooden Bridge'. I have never seen this before in over thirty years - and at a time when the river should be fully replenished...

Worrying times...

Regards

Paul - aka 'The Lurker'
 

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Thats so sad! :mad: The gade was the first river I fell in love with at Croxley Green. Will the fish end up migrating into the GUC?

Hoping for some much needed rain Brian
 
yer, but the car washes are still open, after all, people must have a shiny car, EA idiots!
 
Shocking:eek::mad::( They'll bleed the rivers dry down here in the South before they stop the abstraction though........ Until the great British public realise that water is a precious resource and stop treating it like there's an endless supply, sadly sights like that are likely to increase. Strange that they are happy to pay £1 (or more) for a 1 litre bottle of water from the shop yet they scream blue murder if charged a fraction of that for their domestic water supply........

Never mind, with global warming, perhaps the barbel will migrate north into Scotland and we can all move up there then (and complain about the cold, snowy winters no doubt!!)


Dave
 
One of the first rivers I fished as a kid, fond memories of Croxley, this is very bad news.

If anyones spots fish in distress tell the EA asap, think they are going to have a busy summer unless it rains.
 
parts of the colne are getting this way as well, it won't be long, the EA's handling of this is as good as the governments handling of a potential fuel strike.
 
Desalination is a great process but only where done as an integral part of power generation, as it is done in middle east, etc.......... Otherwise it would be totally uneconomical and put a massive and unecessary demand on fuel resources. I would totaly agree that we should now be looking at ensuring that all future planned power stations in the southern half of the country should be planned as combined power and desal plants.
 
That is a desperately sad picture, isn't it? The rivers in the South East are all living on borrowed time....those that are not already dead that is :( Still, never mind. So long as we all continue berating ourselves and believing it is all our fault, continue swallowing the propaganda we are fed like the dear old Brits always have.....then the water companies can continue smiling all the way to the bank, without a worry in the world.

They can continue under investing in infrastructure, allowing millions of gallons to leak away each day through ancient, fractured pipework....and use the money they have saved by not carrying out essential remedial work....to pay very nice dividends to their shareholders in France, Russia and lord knows where else in the world.

Then again, it gives the oddballs who take deep, perverse pleasure in spreading the propaganda for the money makers something to do I suppose. Those disturbed types who like nothing better than standing atop their self built ivory towers, berating all around them for the wickedness of their ways. Still....if it works, why fix it? Clearly, we ARE all content to continue blaming ourselves....stiff upper lip and all that. And certainly the government are not about to kill the golden goose by putting a stop to it....they can hardly censure the water companies for doing what has always worked for them, can they :rolleyes:

Hey Ho.

Cheers, Dave.
 
David Gauntlett said:
That is a desperately sad picture, isn't it? The rivers in the South East are all living on borrowed time....those that are not already dead that is :( Still, never mind. So long as we all continue berating ourselves and believing it is all our fault, continue swallowing the propaganda we are fed like the dear old Brits always have.....then the water companies can continue smiling all the way to the bank, without a worry in the world.

They can continue under investing in infrastructure, allowing millions of gallons to leak away each day through ancient, fractured pipework....and use the money they have saved by not carrying out essential remedial work....to pay very nice dividends to their shareholders in France, Russia and lord knows where else in the world.

Then again, it gives the oddballs who take deep, perverse pleasure in spreading the propaganda for the money makers something to do I suppose. Those disturbed types who like nothing better than standing atop their self built ivory towers, berating all around them for the wickedness of their ways. Still....if it works, why fix it? Clearly, we ARE all content to continue blaming ourselves....stiff upper lip and all that. And certainly the government are not about to kill the golden goose by putting a stop to it....they can hardly censure the water companies for doing what has always worked for them, can they :rolleyes:

Hey Ho.

Cheers, Dave.
Click to expand...

Good post Dave
 
Originally Posted by David Hall
yer, but the car washes are still open, after all, people must have a shiny car, EA idiots!

"The 'Private' customer has priority over the 'domestic' customer"! - OFWAT.
Around a third of the Hampshire Avon Abstraction is sold to a 'Private' customer, 'outside' of the local area and is worth over £6million a year!
This said 'Private' customer also has its own abstraction point from the sea which supplies all its needs!
The Water Company has asked the EA not to include any Drought Order restrictions to the 'Private' Customer supply!
So... the question is.... where is the Hampshire Avon Water Company supply worth £6Million actually going?
Note that no Hosepipe bans, etc have been ordered in the SSSI/SAC/Ramsar listed Avon Valley, as has happened in all the other Southern/SE areas, despite the Hampshire Avon being very low and everything regarding fish, wildfowl and wildlife etc being 'at risk' if the level drops any further.
It seems that the profiteering Water companies along with the Environment Agency biased commercial business priority involvement (who license the Abstraction) would rather drain and the kill the river and its fish and wildlife first, so as not to lose or restrict income for shareholders profits.
Don't worry though, if ever it does rain again, The EA will then issue a 'Flood Risk' Warning, to where they will then order the opening of all weirs etc to run the excess water off to sea as quickly as possible, thus returning to the 'man made' drought conditions soon after! :mad:
 
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David Gauntlett said:
That is a desperately sad picture, isn't it? The rivers in the South East are all living on borrowed time....those that are not already dead that is :( Still, never mind. So long as we all continue berating ourselves and believing it is all our fault, continue swallowing the propaganda we are fed like the dear old Brits always have.....then the water companies can continue smiling all the way to the bank, without a worry in the world.

They can continue under investing in infrastructure, allowing millions of gallons to leak away each day through ancient, fractured pipework....and use the money they have saved by not carrying out essential remedial work....to pay very nice dividends to their shareholders in France, Russia and lord knows where else in the world.

Then again, it gives the oddballs who take deep, perverse pleasure in spreading the propaganda for the money makers something to do I suppose. Those disturbed types who like nothing better than standing atop their self built ivory towers, berating all around them for the wickedness of their ways. Still....if it works, why fix it? Clearly, we ARE all content to continue blaming ourselves....stiff upper lip and all that. And certainly the government are not about to kill the golden goose by putting a stop to it....they can hardly censure the water companies for doing what has always worked for them, can they :rolleyes:

Hey Ho.

Cheers, Dave.
Click to expand...

The Nail on the head, and all that Dave.

Ian.
 
Colne

Between the St Albans and Watford junctions of the M25 you cross what I believe is the Colne, it is completley dry.
 
No it's the Colne , this area is just south of the Verulam AC pits at Frogmore. The Gade runs to the west of Watford .
 
I live in Luton and the lea runs through a field at the back of my house. I travel about 8 miles or so to fish it as my local stretch only holds sticklebacks and the odd shoal of gudgeon, well it did...it was bone dry most of the summer. Very sad
 
Have the fish been rescued? If so by who? If the EA, they must be sorely embarrassed, or damn well should be.
Oh, and for the south east, there is still no substantial rain forecast for the foreseeable future.
My little River Hiz that runs through Hitchin, into the Ivel dried up before Christmas. I've lived in the area since 1985, never ever witnessed that before.
 
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