A chara, – Irish Water is planning to spend €539 million on installing water meters. This is a waste of money. At best it will struggle to produce savings in excess of €10 million per annum.
UK experience shows that water meters save approximately 10 per cent of domestic consumption. Domestic consumption is about a third of total consumption, the rest being leaks, commercial, industrial and agricultural. So 10 per cent of domestic consumption becomes 3.3 per cent of total production. We spend €1.1 billion on water services, €750 million of this is on waste water treatment, unaffected by meters. That leaves 3.3 per cent of €350 million, which is €11.5 million and this is a gross overestimate as much of the cost of potable water production is unrelated to quantity, such as staff wages, maintenance of the network and so on. As Mr Wynne’s unfunded group water scheme (July 31st) demonstrates, there are much more sensible ways to spent €539 million. – Is mise,
BERNARD CARROLL,
Páirc Baile Na Carraige,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Átha Claith.