Water, Water Everywhere But Not a Drop to Drink

The burst of a mains pipe somewhere between Askern and Burghwallis has residents and Yorkshire Water perplexed. After three days the source of the leak remains a mystery. Normally a leak of this size would result in water squirting in the direction of up, putting the Lake Geneva fountain to shame. But our leak is probably draining down an old mine shaft at Askern and had a bunch of water engineers scratching their heads. Rumour has it  Poirot and Sherlock have both had a call to find the culprit.

The line from “The Ancient Mariner” has a different ring as a burst main water main results in Burghwallis, already surrounded by boggy fields and full streams – has no water to drink.

The problem first ‘burst’ into our lives on Wednesday and today Sunday 14th stills lies hidden like the source of the pandemic. St Valentine’s Day takes on a new meaning as the combination of lockdown and the absence of showering facilities has some couples standing at arms length for a different reason, social distancing has never been so well enforced.

After a degree of arm twisting by the Parish council Yorkshire Water delivered some bottled water to Askern, which is as close to Burghwallis as they could imagine. The first pallet load was promptly stolen complete by some chancer whilst the delivery driver was unloading the second pallet. Luckily Brenda Grimes was in her best  ‘don’t mess with me’ frame of mind and managed to obtain a boot full of water to deliver to Burghwallis residents who were without. (Mysteriously some houses still had water)

Two x 2.0 litre bottles of water were distributed providing residents with the ingredients for a cup of tea. For the more adventurous a quick Google search and NASA describes how to recycle water to provide a warm shower, but it involves a catheter, plastic tubing and the need for a further shower.

Hopefully the leak will be found and the drought will end so we can all get back to worrying about the economy, effect of the pandemic, Brexit and will Meghan become the next President of the USA. Actually perhaps we need to thank Yorkshire Water for the diversion!