WATER METERS

Every home in Britain will have to have a water meter fitted in the next few years leaving a typical family of four up to £200 worse off a year. This new Water Strategy aims to protect supplies and help combat global warming. It will be compulsory for water companies to install meters from 2010 and the work should be complete by 2015. Other changes will see water companies repairing leaking pipes in homes. People will also be encouraged to collect rainwater to wash their cars and water their garden. (Source: Sunday Mirror, Oct/07)

Folkestone and Dover Water, in Kent, has been given the go-ahead to force 65,000 householders to install water metersafter it applied for "water scarcity status" because of the drought affecting the South East. Following the government ruling, other water firms are expected to adopt similar measures. Compulsory water metering was trialled in 11 areas across the country, including the Isle of Wight, in the 1980s. According to Ofwat papers, the National Water Metering Trials, from 1989 to 1993, showed an average reduction in domestic consumption of 11% because of compulsory meters. The exercise involved meters being installed in about 48,000 properties on the island.

But Folkestone and Dover Water's application is the first one of its kind by a water company under the Water Industry Regulations Act of 1999. A spokesman from Water UK, the body which represents water companies, said no other firms have plans to apply for compulsory water metering. He said other companies in the region were simply looking at the decision regarding Folkestone and Dover Water "with interest". The Environment Agency announced it favoured compulsory metering in southern England.

Labour fiercely opposed compulsory metering in opposition, calling it a "tax on family life". The environment minister insisted that water meters would not be made compulsory in the UK but said they were needed in areas where there was a water shortage. Environment Minister Elliot Morley said, "At the moment we believe people should have the option of whether to have a water meter but when you have an issue of water scarcity as they have in Dover and Folkestone, compounded by a very bad drought, you have to take that into account." (Source: BBC News, Mar/06)

A rough calculation based on rainfall figures for 2005 shows that an average of 4.5 million litres of water per person fell on the UK. The average consumption of water per person was slightly over 50,000 litres. This means that just 1.2% of the incident rainfall needs to be captured to satisfy the demand for water consumption in this country. The posturing by the Government and water companies and the threats to impose water meters are not based on any shortage of water. It is a sad reflection of the failure to provide adequate water capture and treatment facilities. Norman Graves