Our canals and rivers are lined with thousands of water points. These supply a constant stream of clean and fresh water to boaters.
While the vast majority of them are plumbed into the mains supply, we do own several bowsers (big tanks) around the country in more rural locations where we can't access mains water. These need filling on a regular basis.
We're currently investing to standardise the water points on our network and install new vandal free taps, which will cut down on the cost of maintenance and help us fix them on the first visit when things go wrong.
The Trust advises boaters to use hoses of food grade quality to fill their on-board tanks, not let them sit in puddles or on contaminated ground, and at no time make contact with canal or river water. After use, empty the hose and keep it in a sealed container to prevent cross contamination. Hoses must not be used as a permanent connection to a boat.
For third party operated pump outs please check Google or Open Canal Map.
To use our pump out services
You’ll need more sophisticated pump out services if your boat has a holding tank. This is not covered by your licence fee. To use our self-service machines you can now pay for this service at the pump by card payment.
Please follow the instructions carefully. Part of the reason the cost of pump out remains high is the number of breakdowns from misusing the equipment.
Never use a free-standing pump to pump out your tank into an Elsan disposal point. These simply don't have the capacity and there's a high risk of spillage. Polluting the canalside with raw sewage is a serious offence, as well as a health hazard.
It may be easier to buy the service from a boatyard or marina, where someone will do the dirty work for you for a very reasonable fee.
Separator toilets
These are also known as waterless or compost toilets. If you're considering getting one for your boat, please only do so if you have the ability to completely compost the solid waste from your toilet yourself, or have access to somewhere that will do this for you.
If you don't have the ability to do this, then getting a separator/compost toilet is not the best solution for you. Pump out and Elsan facilities are available across our network that boats with tanks or cassette toilets can use instead.
If you currently have a separator/compost toilet on your boat and are not able to completely compost the solid waste from your toilet yourself and you don't have access to somewhere that will do it for you, then the alternative disposal method of bagging and binning it is not an environmentally sustainable way to deal with this waste. Bagged solid waste disposed of in bins can lead to cross contamination of other content, which otherwise is sorted and mostly recycled, and can mean that the entire contents of the bin need to be disposed of in landfill. Sending waste to landfill adds costs as landfill taxes are charged.
If you have a separator/compost toilet on your boat and have been putting bagged and binned waste in our waste bins, you need to find an alternative way to dispose of this waste. We will continue to work with boaters and others to identify a sustainable solution for the disposal of this waste.
