We all should pay for our water

Sir — Michael Gannon (Letters, Sunday Independent, July 8) blamed two named politicians for the ‘water mess’.

I am afraid the blame for the water mess goes much wider than that. In fact, the renewed coverage of the water supply issue highlights the hypocrisy with which this issue has been managed right back to the foundation of the State.

For nearly a century, the maintenance of water infrastructure has been underfunded so a very high percentage of water is lost through leakages.

When the country went bankrupt, water charges for urban areas were introduced in the budget of 2009. Rural areas have always paid for their water.

One political grouping, who if they had been in power this country would now be somewhere between Greece and Venezuela, took to the streets and protested loudly.

The political group, which has been in power for around 70pc of the time since independence and who introduced charging for water in 2009, has joined them in opposing water charges.

Since most of the developed world has water services which are paid for by users, the present position in this country in which, up to the recent restrictions due to weather, people can waste water at will is indefensible.

To see the people who agitated to suspend water charges now complaining about water shortages is a sight to behold.

The people who live in Irish urban areas should pay for the usage of water the same as the people in Irish rural areas and the people in the rest of the developed world do. A Leavy, Sutton, Dublin 13