The value of water
- To: "m*@ucdavis.edu" <m*@ucdavis.edu>
- Subject: The value of water
- From: T* D* <t*@xtra.co.nz>
- Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 19:02:00 +1300
Glenn Breayley wrote:
>>If water and fertilizer are
>>precious, let's tax them directly and let people make their
>>own decisions about how to spend their money.
>>
>South Africa works on an incremental scale for water consumption. Water
>bills are monthly with the first few kilolitres at a nominal rate then
there
>is a price hike for the next amount used & then a 3rd step for real excess
>consumption. Profligate watering, such as a lawn requires, gets really
>expensive, so it helps focus the mind on the situation nicely.
Probably the very best way to value water is to not be on a town supply, so
that the only water that you can use is what you supply yourself. This way
you know exactly what it actually costs to supply the water. And when you
live in an area like I do that does not have a potable underground supply,
it is not possible to sink a well or bore. Just to make things really hard,
there are no nearby natural springs, so all the streams dry up in the
driest weather. The only water supply we have comes directly from the rain,
onto our roof and then into storage tanks. When the tank runs dry, the only
way out is to get the water trucked in.
Our neighbours ran out of water at Christmas. They had to pay NZ$150 for
9000 litres to be trucked in (2000 Imperial gallons, around 2250 US gallons
I think). That is around US$80. The average family is said to use around
1000 litres per day. Obviously someone who waters their lawn all day long
with a sprinkler uses a lot more. Our family uses 200 litres a day under
normal conditions. Low water usage for us is a way of life. At that rate
our total water supply can last us just over 10 weeks without any rain. The
longest we have ever had without rain is 5 weeks, so we've always been OK.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the weather patterns won't change too
much in years to come!
Note that the house supply never gets used for watering the garden. For
that purpose I have other small tanks dotted about the property collecting
rainfall from various shed roofs. All watering is done with a watering can.
To make life easier, we try to only plant things that can survive on
natural rainfall. If something dies, it was either the wrong plant or it
was in the wrong place.
