Roger Mills wrote:
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Harry wrote:

They are the devil's own devices and sent to taunt us all into early
death from dehydration! We came from an unmetered, three bedroom house
with long back garden. Daily showers in the mornings, car washing,
baths of an evening, jet washing the concrete, flooding the garden,
even contemplating a water feature for a while, all a thing of the
past. We're now in a metered flat and the far higher cost is proving
prohibitive, economy flush on the cistern - and pee is left to "brew"
- boiling single cups of water at a time and leaving washing up to do
all in one wallop, for example and we're still paying out much more
than at the previous premise. The wife even carries a water flask in
the car which she fills at our daughter's whenever we visit.
Nightmare.
Do as suggested and try your own meter first.


Sounds like your family is just the sort whose profligate habits water
meters are designed to curb!

I think that there's a broader question. The water companies have been
very clever at hitching a ride on the environmental movement. Not that
they are clever enough to have planned it that way but some bright spark
saw the chance and jumped on it.

Water is not used up like oil or gas and its use doesn't produce carbon
dioxide. All that happens is that it gets dirty. With sufficient
investment, the dirty water could be cleaned up and reused rather than
chucked in the sea still filthy. Yes the cleaning would use some energy
but relatively little so the situation is not comparable with fossil
fuel burning.

Clearly the water companies don't want to make the massive investment to
reuse water. As we heard on the news today they pay their shareholders
double the going rate. Now water is privatised the only way to make them
change their policies is public bribery. Just listen to the
over-reaction to Ofwat's rules over price rises announced this morning.

Water is an essential. People should not have to economise unreasonably.
People who grow their own food use more water. Even washing the crops
takes more water.

One last thought. If you have a largish house you are likely to want to
sell to a family with more than two people in it. Has anyone looked at
whether you get a lower price for a house with a meter? I'd want to
bargain over that if I was a buyer!

Peter Scott