The message
from "Charlie Pridham" contains these words:


Putting water down a well would be frowned on, but you are perfectly
entitled to use the water from it for your own use. the rule of thumb is
worked by the size of the delivery pipe, if you use larger than a domestic
pipe (15mm) then strictly speaking they can charge you for the water
abstracted by fitting a meter!

I wonder...

The implication of that is that the water company actually *own* all the
water on and within the Isle of Wight (in this case), whereas I'd have
thought they owned the means of collection, purification and delivery.

If one turned one's whole garden into a reservoir, I can't see that the
water company could charge you for use of the collected water no matter
what the diameter of pipe used to move it about.

But if all the water in a given area *is* the property of the local
water company, people whose houses get flooded should be able to sue
them for failing to properly control their property. Should be an
interesting case!

Brian Mitchell