Right to Water Press Release For immediate release 12 October 2009

Water Meter Arguments Based On Poor Information

Any moves to introduce compulsory water meters in Wellington will be based on faulty conclusions drawn from poor information, says Right to Water. A front page article in today’s Dominion Post reports Wellington City Council employees saying residential water meters and charging are being considered under the city’s water conservation plan.

“The 350 litre per person per day is based on dividing the city’s total water consumption including council usage, system leaks, fire-hydrants, and unmetered industry and commercial as well as household use by the population. The council has already acknowledged this approach, that implies each person uses 350 litres from their own taps, is misleading and we have no idea why they’re continuing to use this figure”, said Right to Water spokesperson, Maria McMillan.

“The supposed savings achieved through the introduction of meters are highly disputed. Some impressive figures about possible savings are bandied about by ideologically driven advocates of water meters, and unfortunately these are being repeated by policy makers without looking at the particular circumstances in Wellington”, says Ms McMillan.

“The council is acknowledging that to make any impact at all on people’s water use behaviour you have to inflate the cost of water. This would inevitably create a financial burden for low income households who won’t be able to afford the water they need”, she said.

“At the same time as putting the onus on residents to reduce their usage, The council admits that water meters are being seen as a solution to population growth, not current usage which in fact appears to have been slowly reducing on a per capita basis”, she said.

“If the Council wants real reductions in the amount of water used by the city they should focus on commercial and industry use. They could also enforce water savings technology on new developments and in rental properties, and they could subsidise rain water tanks in existing properties”, she said.

ENDS

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