Getting to grips with bottles as water runs dry

It was poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge who coined the phrase ‘Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink’ in his yarn about the Ancient Mariner back in 1834.

Last week, I experienced something similar. Although not marooned on a ship drifting in the middle of the ocean I was, in my own way, stuck on an island cut off from reality and water.

It was the sun-kissed Isle of Sheppey which, you may recall, was without water for three days when the pipe bringing supplies from the mainland burst.

In fact, it burst twice, which proved quite frustrating.

Like many things we take for granted in the 21st century, it didn’t take long to realise how difficult it is to live without water.

To be fair, Southern

Water eventually got around to dishing out free bottled water for drinking. But have you ever wondered what else we use it for?

Obviously, the flowers in the garden had to wait. But how many of you have tried to shower or wash your hair from a plastic bottle of cold water?

I know this week we all wanted to do that with the heatwave and everything but last week it came as a bit of a shock.

And then there was the touchy subject of toilet etiquette.

Just how do you flush the loo with a couple of bottles of

Evian? Having already exhausted supplies from the water butts I turned to the water which must not be drunk - the sea.

Along with many other Islanders, I dipped buckets into the briny and took them home to clear various blockages threatening to put Cobweb Castle out of bounds with an environmental hazard sticker.

Living on an island is quite nice most of the time, except when you are battling with a burst main. This time, there wasn’t water, water anywhere...

Obviously the flowers in the garden had to wait... but how many of you have tried to shower or wash your hair from a plastic bottle of cold water?