We waste far too much water

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

It just takes a few drops of rain and the countryside is looking green again.

The MD of Irish Water, Jerry Grant tells us that as it stands Dublin has enough water for the next 70 days. That means we need an awful lot of rain to replenish our reservoirs.

Yes, we have neglected our water infrastructure. Successive governments have treated such an important natural resource as some sort of Cinderella. Many of our pipes are old and leaking. Now it’s dawning on us that something has to be done.

We’ve had our water meter debacle. Major rows loom concerning bringing water from Parteen Weir on the Shannon to Dublin. The bringing of water from Limerick to Dublin makes sense to me. If we can bring gas from Kinsale and Belmullet and electricity from Moneypoint why can’t we bring water from the weir at Parteen?

In the meantime, we need to be making frantic efforts to replace broken pipes and fixing leaks. We should also be building new reservoirs.

Close to where I live a large apartment complex has been built. I have no doubt it’s wired for everything, television, electricity, broadband and all done to the highest specification. And of course every apartment has a water supply from the mains.

All that water has been treated at great expense. How much of it is used to flush toilets, clean cars and water the grounds surrounding the apartments?

Why are we not installing tanks on new buildings to harvest rain water that then could be used for flushing our toilets and cleaning our cars? Plumbing a separate pipe system for this water in new buildings would not cost megabucks and think of the water that would be saved. All the talk at present is in conserving energy, why are we not talking about conserving water especially in buildings? 

I am forever gobsmacked at how profligate we are when it comes to how we care for our water. Like all other natural resources, it is limited.

It is easy to blame the county councils, Irish Water, the Government, every organisation under the sun but what am I doing, what are you doing to conserve water?

Right now we are dangerously short of water, especially in the east of the country.

Currently Irish Water is running an advertisement saying that every person on average uses 129 litres of water every day.

The next time you turn on your tap remember that all your water has been harvested and treated. Ask yourself how can I play my part in reducing the amount we use. Have you ever thought of trying to save water and then reusing it for cleaning your car or washing your windows? Do you leave the tap running when you are washing your teeth?

And now to enter the world of politics. How the Government mishandled the introduction of water metering was indeed idiotic and a scandal. How much did it cost to install all those water meters and will they ever be used?

The attitude of the then environment minister Phil Hogan left much to be desired. He exuded a mix of arrogance and stupidity? It would be interesting to know who made a killing on the installation of all those meters. 

Nevertheless, the current system is daft. 

It is broken and urgently needs fixing.

Log on to www.water.ie and do a check list how you can save water. 

Remember the Chinese proverb: ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’.