The Wet Web
Helen Gazeley reports on the boaters who have come up with a way of filtering canal water.
IT’S funny what you think about while you’re filling the water tank. Six years ago, for John Howard, it was how annoying it was to be waiting on a low-pressure tap at 3 o’clock in the morning.
“I was moored in Paddington Basin with very little water and I didn’t want to move because I knew I’d lose my spot when I still had five days before I had to go.” The solution was to sneak off in the small hours in the hope of regaining his berth on his return. “I thought how crazy it was to be surrounded by water and there must be a way of cleaning it.”
It was the start of a deep exploration of water filtration, which resulted in John installing a system that allows him to draw water from the canals. It hadn’t been his intention to set up business, but word got round and, after installing systems for those who tracked him down, this summer he launched his company Water Freedom (waterfreedom.co.uk).
As you can imagine, the first question people ask is: “Can I drink the water?” John doesn’t recommend it. “Customers do and where they say that, I put another level of filtration below the tap, but I can’t guarantee the safety. I don’t want people to take the chance. Without a doubt, though, you could get to a point where you’ve got pure water with nothing in it.”
What he can guarantee is an unlimited supply of water, filtered through a minimum of five pumps, which take out progressively smaller particles, including heavy metals, dissolved solids, bacteria and viruses (the water is also blasted with UV light) and fine for everything from cooking to washing up and showering.
Enquiries have burgeoned over the last year. “Lockdown definitely increased interest,” says John. “It was a period when people were really desperate and didn’t want to move.”
Alan Denman and his wife Ayesha had their system installed in April 2020. “It was a boon,” says Alan. “We didn’t have to keep pulling up the mooring pins and finding a mooring spot. And my wife in particular is very fond of baths. That’s important, because one of the things you learn on a boat is to monitor and respect resources. It does take the pressure off.”
Limitless baths
Now, they have limitless baths and no worries about running the washing machine. “People don’t believe it,” says Alan. “When non-boaters ask where we get water from, they’re gobsmacked.”
Alan is a writer and film-maker who has featured in this column before for his entertaining vlogging channel. He and
Ayesha have made a series of videos about the system starting with Narrowboat Lockdown 5 – Water Freedom! (youtu. be/8P0sY5SjQWg).
Other updates include Barging Free – Life on a Narrowboat – Water Freedom 3 (https:// youtu.be/vR4wPObUhqU), Narrowboat Lockdown 8, where they test the water (https:// youtu.be/ao8gVvskHXo) and Narrowboat Lockdown 10 in which he interviews John (https://youtu.be/Fjk1YdoFt6U).
All the videos have attracted a lot of comments and questions – worth reading for an exploration of the subject.
Liz was another who was glad to have the system in place for lockdown. She lives on a widebeam with a 400-litre tank and would go through a whole tank in one week, even with two-second showers and minimal washing-up.
With the system installed just before lockdown, she didn’t have to move once for water and enjoys showers every day.
“I don’t have the stress of pulling up to a water point and waiting about three hours to fill the small tank,” she adds.
With the super-fast pump that is one of the two options, her tank can fill in less than 10 minutes.
And what if the system were widely adopted? It’s an interesting point.
“You’re not taking water out of the canal,” points out John.
“You take a shower and it goes back in. The water’s probably much cleaner than when it came out.”
Perhaps we’d end up with sparkling canals!