So now it's a drought on the way as well - AIBU to think water meters should be compulsory

[cakeorwine]

www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/31/drought-water-queues-uk-hosepipe-ban-compulsory-metering

Low levels of water supply.
Reservoirs drying up
Farmers having issues with watering crops.

The average household with a water meter uses 33 litres a day. Those without use 141 litres a day (on average)

The UK has the highest water consumption in Europe

OTOH - water companies lose 3 billion litres a day in leaks

We have a water meter - and it does make you think that if you are paying for the volume you use, you use less.

And it does seem unfair that people can use more of the same product from the same company but not get charged for the amount they use.

OTOH - there are households who would suffer if they had reasons why they used a lot of water and that could affect their health.

But then again, there are people who don't care about their water usage as they aren't paying per litre.

We are facing a drought - and climate change will affect water supply going forward. So maybe it is time for a look at compulsory metering WITH a look at cost per 1000 litres and a sensible look at circumstances of households.

It's Oxford Welcome Break www.susdrain.org/case-studies/case_studies/welcome_break_wheatley.html

More of this sort of thing can only help!

My cottage is being assessed tomorrow morning. It's 1600s terraced (former coach house divided up)

Reading this thread I'm not confident I'll get a meter now ☹️

It's a tiny cottage and makes complete sense to be on a meter compared to what I'm currently paying.

It's not as simple as that. Unless we know many people live in these houses/ size of garden/ type or age of toilets etc we can't make a fair comparison.

Do you think that people would reduce their use of water / any resource if they were paying for the amount they used instead of just paying a charge regardless of the volume?

First day in a week it's not pissing in mine.

It's quite area specific. They should out more infrastructure where needed.

Yes if they could save money that way I think they would. But that obviously depends what the fixed rate is.

However, I’ve lived in older properties without meters and have had my bills raised when I’ve used more so it’s not exactly fair to say people get charged the ‘same’ for using more water. That’s not actually possible. With no meter, no-one can tell you are using more. The raising of bills is coincidental.

Much more water is water by leaks. We've had an on / off leak in a lane near us which creates a constant small river. They never fix it.

Sorry meant to say wasted not water

Same here. UK seem to be so far behind sometimes it’s sad.

We got a water meter, they had to dig up our drive as in house not possible, and bill has less than halved as I knew we didn't use much water. I would recommend if you are in a similar position, but not if you use quite a bit

My theory is, those people who are not on a meter are subsidising the rest of the service.
I've very recently gone on to a meter.
My water consumption, in my view, hasn't altered - I was never wasteful.
I am now paying roughly 25% of what I was previously paying.

Having had the water off twice this week due to burst water mains in the area I am not feeling very charitable towards the water companies. They lost more in those 2 days than I would probably use in a year.

They need to sort out their infrastructure first before blaming residential customers. Industry also needs to play its part. Manufacturing processes can use huge amounts of water.

I live in a block of 14 flats built in the 1960s. Apparently it's not possible to put individual water meters in our flats.

I've just had a water meter fitted in my (conversion) flat. Thames Water originally said they couldn't do it, now they can for some, but not all flats. I'm hoping it's going to make a big difference to my bill. I think I read somewhere that if you refuse to have a meter fitted, they will charge you extra. Not sure what they'll do for cases where they can't fit a meter in the first place.

Nope. I wouldn’t have one of them fitted. I have no desire to know how much water I’m using and even if I did I wouldn’t slow it down.

The amount I use is the amount I want to use. Nothing is changing that.

Absolutely this, however I can definitely see them forced upon us, same as electricity and gas meters.

Then they'd shaft everyone putting up the prices.

Even if they work out cheaper now

We moved from a house with no meter to one with a meter. Initially we were concerned that it was costing a lot more but I think that was due to building work we had done before we moved in.
Now it's settled to costing less than we were paying before. We probably use more here too as we have a massive garden, nicer showers and a sex pond hot tub.

DS can’t get one, his 1880 terrace share a supply that can’t be split without digging ip
all their rear gardens up. Of course but can’t be compulsory, he pays more for his two bed house rates than we do for our four bed house on a meter.

This shunting of responsibility from corporations to individuals is a terrible attitude and will fox nothing, unless pushing people into poverty is the goal.

I agree with this. I am conscious of our water usage, to the point where my garden looks like a dustbowl, we don't flush the loo every time (if you know what I mean ) and we're all having 2-min (almost cold) showers in the morning. But I'm increasingly pissed off with the message that it's up to me, as an individual, to restrict my activities whilst the monopolistic companies providing the essentials of life do whatever the fuck they like and charge me a small fortune for it.

I am happy to do my bit. I just want the bloody water / energy companies to do theirs as well.

I couldn’t have one fitted as it would have meant ripping some of my kitchen units out (old house). I’ve no plans to update the kitchen ever hopefully so I’ll never be able to have one unless the water company will pay for new units to be fitted.

Has anyone realised that compulsory water meters would have a much bigger effect (as usual) on lower income, lower socio economic group, more densely populated, already impoverished families?

We are also facing an energy shortage. Every house and business is already on a meter for energy, yet there are still huge amounts of waste.