The hosepipe ban takes a problem the government has created and tells us it’s oursMy village is currently subject to a hosepipe ban, like much of England. Greenpeace – not an institution known for underplaying environmental worries – estimates that a hosepipe ban across England and Wales would save 577 million litres a day. To build reservoirs and fix leaks is difficult, and costs water companies in a way that imposing hosepipe bans does not. The behaviour of the water companies demonstrates the revealed preference of the system we have designed for them: rationing rather than resilience. The hosepipe ban takes a problem the government has created and tells us it’s ours.