Yet this year, with widespread public anger at the behaviour of water companies, neighbourly tension in some areas has reached boiling point. “Breaking a hosepipe ban is not a police matter and you should not call the police,” they have reminded the nation. “The water companies are literally pumping sh*it into our rivers and seas constantly and taking no responsibility for it,” says Carla, 63, from Barking, Essex. I’ve also filled up two paddling pools for our grandkids today, and I’ll be doing it again. Water companies are incompetent and greedy, and ordinary people like us are left to sort it out.