Water mess! Blame the politicians

Sir — So the critical aspect of conservation in the management of our water supply is now to be implemented by citizen ‘snitching’ on fellow citizens who may be attempting to consume water through the medium of the hosepipe.

Far better that our two main parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, be fined the €125 for every single breach of the ‘hosepipe rule’.

After all, we can thank the dictatorial attitude of Fine Gael’s Phil Hogan, the then Minister for the Environment, for the unmitigated disaster in attempting to introduce what needed to be appropriate and fair charges for one of our most precious resources.

Be that as it may, we still might be aspiring to a proper water management infrastructure had Micheal Martin, the Fianna Fail leader, not made a populist-motivated U-turn on water charges after the last general election.

I also submit that citizens would have considerably reduced qualms of conscience in ‘snitching’ on ‘hosepipe offenders’ if the fines were directed as I suggest. Michael Gannon,

Kilkenny