Letter: Saving water: meters, permits, tankers and shared baths

From Miss Sarah Mulholland

Sir: I am already awaiting, with some anticipation, the inevitable arrival of the Water Consumer's Charter, to be accompanied by an official letter setting arbitrary and largely unrealistic targets in order to pacify an angered public.

Interesting though it will be, no doubt, to read what the water authorities should have done, are still to do and perhaps are now doing, and by when, should we not also consider what we as consumers, as well as customers, are doing? I wonder how many people have genuinely changed their daily habits in the light of the driest summer we have had for decades. In many European countries, simple water-saving tactics are used as a matter of practice, and one does not need to look much farther to see countries where water is viewed, and treated, as a valuable commodity. It speaks a certain arrogance to assume as a right the inexhaustible supply of a material so essential to life, and one which is so unequally distributed throughout the world.

Sincerely,

Sarah Mulholland

Nottingham

28 August