All EU citizens should pay for water, urges commissioner
The government has, however, reiterated its determination not to reintroduce water charges, despite findings that up to 40% of water is wasted and warnings from Forfás, the national policy and advisory board for enterprise, trade, science, technology, that Dublin, Galway, Athlone and Letterkenny could face water shortages over the next five years. Friends of the Irish Environment have backed the EU’s call for water charges provided they were poverty proofed.
Their spokesperson, Tony Lowes, said: “Without charges, people will never be rewarded for saving water. Equally, those who squander this increasingly scarce resource will be subsidised by those who are doing their best to conserve it”. Mr Dimas went on to tell a conference in Spain that climate change and a fourfold increase in the amount of water each person uses is putting the resource under severe pressure in much of Europe.
