FEATURE | Water Charges
Turning up the pressure
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The Government could not have envisaged that inclement weather would focus public attention on water supply just as it was outlining its plans to re-introduce domestic water charges. But the shortages experienced by households all over the country have done nothing to assuage those opposed to the imposition of water rates, writes
PAUL GOLDEN.
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A COMBINATION OF flooding and extremely
low temperatures left many Irish homes without water during the winter and brought to mind the words of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – ‘Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink’. According to Hilary Haydon, Chair of the
Chambers Ireland’s Ratepayers and Local Government Policy Council, these shortages have drawn attention to the value of managing our water resources in a proper and more efficient manner. “To date, local authorities have sought to fund the costs associated with efficient management of our water system from their own revenues, raised primarily through the imposition of commercial rates and water charges on businesses. However, the number of domestic users means these costs are way beyond the coffers of any local authority under existing revenue structures.”
In January, Minister for the Environment, John Gormley TD said as much as €4.6 billion had been invested in water services since 2000, of which €2.8 billion had been spent on sewage treatment plants and €1.8 billion on water supply, supplemented by spending of some €900 million by local authorities from
12 InBusiness May 10
THere IS A
MASSIve ProBLeM
WITH LeAKAge In
oUr WATer SySTeMS
WITH AS MUcH AS 40
Per cenT of TreATed
WATer goIng To WASTe In SoMe AreAS.” – joAnnA TUffy
their own resources. The Minister indicated that domestic water metering could raise €1 billion from the 1.1 million Irish homes connected to the public water supply, which is presumably based on estimates of €1.2 billion as the annual cost of providing water services across the country and €250 million as the amount already paid by commercial consumers.
PRICING TO BE CONFIRMED
Several elements of the proposed metering scheme have yet to be confirmed, most notably pricing. A spokesperson for the
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