The privatisation of our water network will be bad for rural Ireland

Recently, I alerted people to the existence of the Irish exemption from the EU requirement to charge for domestic water. 

Subsequently, Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly stated: “We do not have a derogation because we now have committed to the model that we have.” The good news is that Ireland exemption is still in place. The challenging news is that it is under imminent threat of cancellation by Alan Kelly himself. In accordance with Article 9.4 of the Water Framework Directive our exemption is embedded in the 2008 River Basin Management Plan.In 2010 the Troika told us to charge for domestic water and both the Irish government and the EU Commission trust that Minister Kelly will obey by stating in the River Basin report that the only way we can protect our rivers is by charging for domestic water use. But is this true?

If the money being spent on metering and that is already collected in taxes for water is spent on water infrastructure then households will meet their river management targets. Because the EU water legislation is based on the “polluter pays principle”, the most obvious strategy for financing clean water is to identify the real polluters of water and make them pay. Privatization will not solve our water problems because private companies are about profit. It will make sense to invest in 500 metres of new piping in a city but there will be no incentive to do the same in a rural area for five homes.