Berlin resident exposes water waste in Dublin

IT takes a resident of Berlin to expose the inordinate level of waste in the supply and use of water in Dublin (Letters, January 19).

If demand on Monday, January 11, was up 25% on normal, the normal daily usage for Dublin city of one million people is 500 million litres, or about 500 litres per person, against 55 litres per person reported by your letter writer in Berlin. Allowing for leakage, currently 40%, the average Dubliner’s demand is nearly six times higher at about 300 litres a day. As for charging consumers here, most will not want to pay for drinking water so long as it contains industrial fluorides forbidden in Germany and every other EU country.

Since one of these fluorides (fluorosilicic acid) is used in Ireland and is listed by the EU Waste Directive (91/689/EC) as hazardous waste, how can Irish consumers be expected to pay for it?