Our Thames Water hosepipe ban has been in force for two very long weeks, and in that time we’ve had a mere five minutes of spitting rain. So instead I posted on Facebook: ‘What would you do if your neighbours were flagrantly flouting the hosepipe ban?’ Thames Water is nearly £20billion in debt, yet continues paying its top executives ridiculous salaries and had to be stopped from paying bonuses. About 570 million litres of water per day is lost to leakage, according to the latest Thames Water report. So flouting the hosepipe ban may seem justifiable on a point of principle in these circumstances.