MIKE BELL is one of a number of people in Britain going underground — literally — as they seek ways to overcome the water shortage.

Thames Water, which has a hosepipe ban in place, has been told by the Environment Agency to apply for a drought order; Southern Water and Mid Kent Water have applied for drought orders and are expected to obtain them by next month. Sutton and East Surrey Water already has a drought order. Together these four companies supply more than 12 million people.

Bell, an hotelier in the Chilterns, cannot hide his scorn that leakages are permitted to happen. “Lots of the piping in the Chilterns was put in by Italian prisoners of war and it’s probably still there, leaking like a sieve,” he says. “Our water pressure is very poor. They (the water companies) should spend what’s needed now to repair the system, not spread it over a period of time so that it doesn’t affect the shareholders. It’s all very cynical.”

If your household is in an area that has restrictions on the use of water you probably share his feelings. It is also infuriating because the biggest wasters of water, as a result of the ageing infrastructure, are the water companies themselves, with Thames Water’s daily loss of 915 million litres topping the table.

Neither has it escaped householders’ notice that much of the rain that does fall ends up in the sewers rather than our yawning reservoirs.

For a small band, however, bans, orders, snitches and fines (up to £5,000 in magistrates’ courts if you are convicted of flouting a drought order) hold no fear. Those householders, including Bell, continue to water their gardens and wash their cars with hosepipes. They can spray, splash and sprinkle with impunity, because they are using water they have “harvested” themselves. “When we were renovating the cottage we discovered an underground Victorian water tank that holds about 12,000 gallons,” Bell says. “We have about 5,000 sq ft of roof on the cottage and barn, with deep gutters. In one big storm we can put about 1,000 gallons of rainwater in the tank in about ten minutes.”

He installed a three-pipe system: hot, cold and Thames. The header tank in the loft is fed from the underwater tank, the water coming down into hot and cold taps. He uses Thames Water purely for drinking and his own hot and cold for everything else. “It’s fine, as long as the children don’t drink the bath water,” he says.

Unlike the water companies, Bell has no difficulty collecting sufficient rainwater to supply his home, water his garden and fill his swimming pool and spa. “Solar panels on the barn roof heat the pool water and heat exchange from the central heating system heats water for the spa. The spa then overflows into the pool, giving further heat.”

Contemptuous of government proposals to build two million homes in the South East despite the strain on water supplies, Bell hopes one day to put an end to water bills by drilling for his own supply. “They should be building those homes in the North, where there’s plenty of water. We’re going to run out of fresh water in southern England. We have enough, but it’ s not collected efficiently.”

Bell’s plan to become self-sufficient is a reality for Mark Orme, an eco-architect whose building plot on the Somerset Levels was half a mile from the mains supply. Connection to the grid would have cost thousands of pounds. “We inherited a borehole, so the first thing we did when we moved here was to test the water,” he says. “A farmer told us it was too saline, but the test proved otherwise.”

Water from the borehole, together with rainwater collected from the roof, is directed into an underground tank, then through a series of filters, including a UV filter that zaps any nasties. A solar water heater on the roof preheats the supply. “If we’ve had consistent rain, we’ll be using mostly rainwater, but if not we’ll be using water from the borehole. We’ve never had a problem with running out. It’s not a concern.”

Bell believes that many people suffering hosepipe bans could help themselves to free water: He says: “Isolated Victorian buildings tend to have these underground tanks. There must be tens of thousands waiting to be discovered. You just need to drop in a liner.

“I telephoned Gordon Low, who manufacture pond liners, in the hope that they would make a butyl liner for our Victorian tank. When I gave the measurements we were amazed to find that the size was British Standard and had been since 1750, so we bought one off the shelf.”

Orme, a specialist in sustainable architecture, suggests that significant numbers of homeowners can at least augment their supply, routing rainwater from their roofs into above-ground tanks. “You don’t need acres of space. Just divert the downpipes and install a small pump.”

Leaving the four-figure connection fee out of the equation, Orme reckons that, with the cost of water treatment and system maintenance, his supply is probably not much cheaper than mains water. “But we’re quite happy being independent of the water company and we can use water for exactly the things a ban says you can’t,” he says. “We haven’t,” he adds dryly, “felt the need to inflict a hosepipe ban on ourselves.”

www.markormearchitects.co.uk, 01458 830334; Gordon Low, 01480 405433

FACT FILE

Rainwater-harvesting systems are in use at the Hockerton housing project (www.hockerton.demon.co.uk) and the BedZED scheme (www.bedzed.org.uk).

The Environment Agency offers a guide to harvesting rainwater for domestic use. Call 08708 506506, or read it online at www.environment-agency.gov.uk

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