31 January 2007
Regions which suffer from continual water shortages are to have compulsory water metering to encourage consumers to use less, if proposals from the government and the Environmental Agency get the go ahead.
The first consumers to be affected by the meters, should they be implemented, are the 20 million people living from the Thames Valley region to Dover in the South East and embracing London, the Home Counties and parts of Cambridgeshire.
Despite marking a political u-turn on water policy, following John Prescott's decision to dismantle an identical Tory initiative in 1997, the government is adamant that this must be the way forward, following several years of droughts and hosepipe bans in the UK.
Environment minister Ian Pearson commented: "Metering saves water, on average 10% per household, and in areas of serious water stress metering may be a valuable additional tool in...reducing unnecessary water use and waste."
Chief executive of the Environment Agency, Barbara Young, echoed Mr Pearson's sentiments, adding: "There is a need for meters to be installed quickly in areas where water resources are stressed.
"In the south-east, we would like much of this to be achieved by 2015 - as long as social safeguards are in place to protect low income and vulnerable households."
Hosepipe bans and water shortages remind us that we need to do our utmost for the planet. Read uSwitch.com's water saving ideas and see if you can save money by switching to a water meter.
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