MEP’s twin plan to cut farm and school water rates

THE European Parliament’s petitions committee recently heard that 43% of Irish water supply is lost in leaky pipes from old infrastructure and that farmers are expected to pay for this, thereby subsidising domestic users who are exempt from charges and industrial users who negotiate reduced water rates.

County councils maintain that this charging of farmers is necessary under the EU water framework directive (WFD).

However, the WFD does not require charging (termed “cost recovery”) until 2010.

The WFD sets out to ensure a sufficient supply of water, especially in countries like Portugal and Spain where water shortage is a severe problem.

The WFD also aims at ensuring a high quality of water — an objective particularly relevant to Ireland where problems of contamination with cryptosporidium, lead, etc, have presented a threat to public health.

Given these objectives, there is potential for other responses more appropriate to the directive’s objectives than just water charging. For this reason, I have proposed two sustainable packages which would meet the objectives of the WFD on water quality and supply while helping the Irish agriculture sector already threatened by an accumulation of spiralling costs.

Both packages involve investment in water efficiency like repair of leaks and water collection systems which gather the rain from roofs through a pipe from the guttering to an underground holding tank.

The rainwater is pumped into sheds and houses for agricultural use and even domestic use in toilets, washing machines, etc.

The first proposal would allow a farmer to offset water charges with water efficiency investment, euro for euro.

The second proposal would be to use rural development funding to grant aid farmers under flood prevention measures.

Both packages would dramatically reduce the amount of water used by farmers from public supplies and therefore significantly reduce the charges. At the same time, it saves the resources required for water processing by utilising naturally processed water, ie, rain water rather than allowing it to go into drains, causing flooding in heavy weather.

These proposals are allowable within the WFD and only need the backing of the Minister for Environment and, in the case of using rural development funding, the approval of the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.

Both proposals could also be applied to schools facing punitive water charges.

With the growing recognition of the importance of sustainable management of resources, and with a recession, it is time for joined-up thinking that finds long-term sustainable solutions that reduce production costs in agriculture and other work sectors.

Kathy Sinnott

‘St Joseph’

Ballinabearna

Ballinhassig

Co Cork