Water is fast becoming the new oil

AS water becomes scarcer in Ireland, the clamour to charge domestic users for this most essential, though taken for granted, of substances is certain to rise.

Ireland is unique in Europe in not charging households for water, but the experience in other countries has been that the most effective way to reduce consumption is to introduce a sliding scale of charges. In other words, the more water you use, the more you pay.

Imposing new charges is not going to be politically popular, as was the case when bin collection charges were brought in several years ago. But, some government will have to deal with the issue of huge water costs, sooner rather than later. The day when ‘smart metres’ to measure water usage will be in every house can’t be too far off.

Professor Frank Convery, chairperson of Comhar Sustainable Development Council, is calling for immediate action to prevent future water shortage. He looks at some of the solutions being put forward by policymakers — such as bringing water from the west coast to the east — and argues that charging for water would make more sense.

“Water is becoming the new oil, and societies will soon thrive or fail on the basis of how smartly they address water supply and demand,” he says. “Whenever we think we are running out of something — whether it is oil, hospital beds, road space or water — the universal human impulse is to first see if we can increase the supply and capacity. The notion of making better use of what we have struggles to get on to political, personal and corporate agendas.”

Major urban centres are running out of water, with shortages expected in Dublin by 2015 or earlier, unless action is taken. Two solutions have been suggested — take water from the Irish Sea and remove the salt, or take water from Lough Ree, in the River Shannon, and pipe it 105 kilometres to the east coast.

For cost and environmental reasons, abstraction from the Shannon seems to be the preferred option. However, Prof Convery suggests, there is another way to ensure Irish towns do not run dry: reduce demand for water, using price as a deterrent.

Sue Scott, an ERSI expert on water policy, estimates that almost €1.2 billion must be raised annually from other taxes to cover the costs of our ‘free’ water. So, there could be savings for income tax payers and VAT payers if users paid directly for water.

Prof Convery believes failure to charge domestic users for water is the elephant in the room in relation to Ireland’s water policies.

“If we charged cleverly, we could substantially reduce consumption and introduce an alternative option to piping water from the west to the east.”

He says we need to get consumption down from the current level of 148 litres per person per day to the average in Belgium of 115 litres per day.

The most effective way of being fair and reducing consumption is to have a sliding scale of charges — very low for the first 50 litres per person and then rising sharply with each 50-litre increment or ‘block’ above that, he maintains.

The European Environment Agency reports: “Water consumption by household has actually decreased in all regions of Europe in the past decade. This reduction can be directly linked to the water pricing and metering measures put in place to ensure the price of water better reflects its true costs.”

Prof Convery says Ireland’s decision not to charge for water was made in response to a perceived wish by the public for ‘free’ water. But, without charging, we address water scarcity with our hands tied behind our backs, he argues. “This policy is unfair because the richest of us use the most water. It damages the environment because increasing supply is more environmentally damaging than reducing consumption. And it is economically inefficient because we are more likely to spend more on new supply than on achieving reduction in demand.

“Perhaps most importantly, without metering and charging for water, we deprive ourselves of the ability to smoothly manage periods of drought and water stress and these periods are likely to become more common as climate changes.”

Meanwhile, the water issue will get a good airing at the 24th Sherkin Marine annual environmental conference, in Carrigaline, Co Cork, on Thursday and Friday of this week (April 17-18).

More and more emphasis is being placed on water quality, with the EU continuing to introduce more stringent regulations. The conference will address many of the issues that now face local authorities, including drinking water quality, river basin management, new sources of water supplies and the pollution of bays.