AS I SEE IT
BY MARIANNE HERON
The green, green grass of home is turning brown as rain doesn’t fall and the hosepipe restriction is set to run in some areas for six weeks. But if Uisce Éireann think setting sneaks against squirts with an informers’ line to tell on naughty neighbours who break the hosepipe rules is going to make a difference, their thinking is as leaky as our water pipes. The amount of water saved will be a mere drop in an ocean of wastage by all of us.
Making us think twice before washing the car, watering the garden or filling the paddling pool may help a bit. But it doesn’t confront the real issue about our water usage: we have a careless attitude to a precious resource.
There are other reasons for our current predicament as we wait for a decent deluge or two to fill up reservoirs. There is climate change, where the current hot spell may have been bliss if you were by the beach but is a nightmare for much of Europe, where temperatures approaching 40 degrees are causing deaths and wildfires. There are the aforementioned leakages, which cause 35 to 38% of water to be lost (at least it’s down from 49% back in 2014) before it reaches our taps in networks which date back to the 19th century for cities like Dublin and Cork and to the 1950s for rural areas.
Then there is population growth, which has jumped by an unprecedented 1.6 million since the millennium, driven chiefly by inward migration. The lack of water infrastructure, both in relation to water and wastewater – both the responsibility of Uisce Éireann – is restricting the ability to build homes to solve the housing crisis.
The Shannon to Dublin water scheme to relieve water shortages in Dublin and the Midlands, bringing in 300m litres at a cost of more than €5bn – surprise! – has just hit a planning hold-up. An Coimisiún Pleanála last month pushed back its decision on the project by a full year to allow further review of environmental reports and address significant community opposition.
Given all of the above, it’s up to us to make sure that water still comes out of our taps until there is decent rainfall. Our water usage is heavier than most of our European neighbours and perhaps our attitude to H2O is coloured by a couple of things. How can we be short of water when the stuff is pouring out of the sky? Our rainfall is 750mm to 1250mm a year compared to Spain at 600-650mm, where we love to holiday because it doesn’t rain so much. But what comes down from the clouds doesn’t end up in our taps.
Another significant reason is that we don’t pay for our water – perhaps it is time that we did, then we might be more careful about our usage. The attempt to introduce water charges here led to fierce protests between 2014 and 2016, with a non-payment campaign and attempts to block the installation of water meters led by the Right2Water Campaign. The Government of the day backed down.
Most European countries have water charges and our failure to introduce them has led to underinvestment in infrastructure and failure to meet the EU’s water objectives.
The average metered consumption of water in households here is 357 litres a day. When I lived in Cape Town during the 2017-18 drought, there was a threat that water supplies would be turned off completely. Water consumption was restricted to 50 litres a day, less than the amount for a five-minute shower. It made me appreciate the stuff.
Perhaps it’s time for Uisce Éireann to remind us of the ways we can use water wisely. I remember a few from my drought experience, like standing in a plastic basin when showering and reusing the saved water and not flushing the loo unless really necessary. It’s surprising how little things add up to consumption, like running the tap when brushing your teeth or not saving the water while you wait for the tap to run hot. Like putting something in the loo cistern to lessen the amount of water used or making sure the washing machine or dishwasher are full before running.
My thirsty tomato plants have been euthanised now for lack of water. Shame, but their demise is for a good cause.
