Sir, – A total of 487,900 households (30.7 per cent) do not have public wastewater services. A total of 201,600 households do not have a public water supply. These rural households pay out of their own pockets for the services they have.
If water utility charges are abolished, these rural households would find themselves paying the same increased taxes as the urban households that have public water services. This would clearly be unjust.
The only just and sustainable way to finance water services is that they be paid for in the same way as all other utilities, such as electricity, gas and telephone. No other approach would provide quality services.
The abolition of utility charges for water services, even temporarily, would be an unjust and shortsighted development. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL J GANNON,
Moycullen, Co Galway.