Whisper it, but there is a lesson in the dry reservoirs and bans on hosepipes: we do need to pay for H20!

It will cost Irish Water half a billion euro by 2021 to reduce leakage – and even then, 37% of pipes still won’t be fixed

W HEN the waters run dry, the landscape scars very rapidly. Cracked and barren, it can yield nothing, except to expose the plastic and metal rubbish normally concealed by the water.

Our summer has yet to produce the ferocity of damage seen in the UK and recently in California, but even the eloquently named National Water Conservation Order, known to all of us as the ‘hosepipe ban’, cannot save us from the fact that our demand for water has outstripped our supply. And we collectively are not very good at acknowledging out loud that this is a real and serious problem, which will need good management and serious financial investment to haul it into the 21st century, to meet the demands of a new and expanding Ireland.

There are plenty of things we can live without. We can also turn to science to create all manner of things we never had. But water is unique. We cannot produce it in a factory and we would die without it. It is quite remarkable, then, that this simple life-and-death equation is so blithely ignored by all of us on a daily basis.

We take for granted that the taps will run and the toilets flush – and we view a long hot shower as an entitlement.

While the sun is shining and water is evaporating at a much higher rate, and no rain is falling, we just carry right on; in fact, we use more water to wash and drink, simply because we are too hot.

Statistics from Irish Water show that water usage has risen by 15% in the last five years, while the population of the country is going only one way at the moment – up! And that population is concentrated in key urban areas such as Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford, putting more pressure on infrastructure. Of these, Dublin is under the most severe pressure for water, as the greater Dublin area now has a population just touching 2million. In addition, one of the attractive factors for new business start-ups in Ireland, particularly for the food and pharmaceutical industries, is not just our membership of the European Union and our educated and English-speaking workforce, but also our guaranteed supply of fresh, clean water.

Routine

Irish Water has now added Mullingar and Meath to the list of places with ‘impending water deficits’, and this has nothing to do with the weather. In all, Irish Water has quantified a need for an additional 330million litres of water every day, just for the greater Dublin area and the east midlands up to 2050.

The utility continues to invest heavily in replacement and repair of water pipes in an effort to reduce leaks, which in Dublin alone are still running at 36%, across a massive network of 9,000km of piping, with more than 600,000 connections.

Across the country, leakage is still running at 47% and Irish Water will spend €500million by 2021 to reduce it – to 38%. In short, that’s a lot of leaking and wasted water for a very long time, and every project manager knows that even the very best targets are rarely met. So, in reality, that leakage level is more than likely to persist until 2025.

Add to this the fact that last year was a relatively dry winter in many parts of the country, and the combination of weather (summer and winter extremes), population, leakage and poor infrastructure leaves us in a unique position for Ireland: water now has to be managed – and on a dayto-day basis. The leeway that existed for wastage over decades is being rapidly eroded – year on year. Click on the ‘water map’ of Ireland; it’s sobering to see how much maintenance and repair work is ongoing across the 26 counties on a routine basis, just to sustain the status quo.

And, all the while, the public does not pay for water. Businesses do, but not the vast majority of users.

We remember only too well the political fiasco that surrounded the establishment of Irish Water in summer 2013, the accompanying charging system and the installation nationwide of water meters. Such was the chaos and animosity generated that it could only fail – and it did. Now, in 2018, the prospect of water charges seems to have evaporated with the water itself. No political party is ready to face down the dragon, and whichever party ends up in government – almost certainly in a coalition – will be faced with one of the greatest infrastructural crises possible. And there really will be nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Empty reservoirs and cracked earth speak volumes.

And yet there has to be an answer somewhere.

Irish people have adapted, to some extent, in their plastic bag habits, smoking in public places and recycling habits. We have adapted because we were largely left with no choice in the matter.

If there are no free bags at the till, you have to bring your own. Simple solution.

If you smoke in my pub, you get thrown out. Simple solution.

If you send all your waste to landfill, it will cost a fortune, so learn to recycle. Simple solution.

Perhaps continuing the hosepipe ban into autumn, or a few months with reduced water pressure or ‘dry hours’ at night, or hospitals being given preference over homes may start to bring home the message that this really is a finite resource, even if the constant rain and the surrounding oceans appear to suggest otherwise.

We are not naive; such bans and bits are not enough. The current coalition Government will call it a day very soon and go to the country. Whoever comes to power will have to bite the bullet and introduce charges for water, coupled with a very public, high-priority strategic plan for the supply and conservation of water in an expanding country. This will require mature, adult politics, with an eye on the longterm future – to Ireland in 2050, not Ireland at 8am the next morning on radio.

Opposed

And the EU must use its considerable weight and influence too. It already has data on the quality of water and investment in water across member states, and on the efforts being made to improve and conserve water.

The EU’s environment commissioner, Karmenu Vella, has already made it clear to Ireland that a proper charging system needs to be put in place for water, to allow sufficient investment to fulfil its EU commitments on wastewater treatment, leak control and better river basin management. Mr Vella needs to push that message louder and harder – Brexit or no Brexit.

Add to the mix the fact that Irish Water will be trying to push through on its big Parteen Basin development – taking water from the River Shannon to supply Dublin; the water penny may begin to drop for some people when this happens.

For those who are already opposed to this huge water diversion, the battle lines are drawn. This already promises to be the mother and father of a row. If there are no substantial changes to the way we manage and pay for water, that row will be just the first of many.