At least water charges will teach us to value our mostpreciousresource

Paddling pools, garden sprinklers and lavishing gallons of sudsy water on your beloved car on Saturday mornings may soon become things of the past. Or at least they will for those living under any sort of budget constraints, thanks to the new water charges regime announced this week.

Environment Minister Phil Hogan did away with the proposed €50 annual standing charge for water.

But before you celebrate by splashing out on a power shower, please note that the average bill will remain the same at €240 a year per household. Therefore we will have to pay more per litre to compensate for doing away with the standing charge.

Each home will have a free allowance of 30,000 litres, which will be topped up by another 38,000 free litres (maximum) for households with children.

That might sound like a lot, but those allowances, combined, provide barely enough water to flush the loo over the course of a year.

How much we will pay per litre is conjecture at this stage. But we can get a rough idea. Mr Hogan said a single person uses 78,000l of water and will face an average bill of €138.

If we deduct the 30,000 “free” litres, that leaves 48,000l to be paid for. And so the price per litre for a single adult living alone would work out at 0.287c per litre.

But the minister also said the average cost per household (including children) would will be €240.

His estimate of the average usage per household (incl. children) is 140,000l. Deducting the 30,000l free allowance leaves us with 110,000l.

This means the price per litre paid for water usage per household would amount to roughly 0.218c (€240/110,000l) once the children’s allowance is taken into account.

It makes you think doesn’t it? Who would have guessed, for example, that a power shower consumes over one and a half times as much water as a bath?

These figures may not seem huge but they do add up alarmingly over a year. A five-minute power shower each day could cost nearly €100 a year, per person.

This also suggests that Mr Hogan’s figure for ‘average water usage’ is a little conservative. Or perhaps he assumes families will immediately become adept at saving water without being prodded into action by hefty bills.

As soon as those bills arrive next January, basic water saving tips could become enshrined in our household routines. Such as: 1. Never wash dishes or vegetables under a running tap. Use a bowl or basin. 2. Brush your teeth without leaving the tap running. It uses six times less water. 3. Use a bucket and sponge to wash the car, preferably with pre-collected rainwater, after driving it onto the lawn to give the grass a drink, too.

(Tips and figures come from taptips.ie and greenhome.ie)

On the upside, the charges will upgrade a dilapidated system. At present: • 23,500 people are on boiled

water notices • 40% of water is lost

through leaks • There are periodic water shortages in Dublin Things are worse globally. One in six people in the world don’t have access to drinking water. Isn’t it about time we learn to value one of our most precious resources?