Thames Water applies for drough order
Thames Water, the company which supplies around five million people in London area, applied for a drought order last Friday risking to face the rage of the customers.
If the order is given, some 2 million users in the region will have constraints in water consumption.
The company alleged that there is no other alternative and blames the lack of rainfall in the past two years, other than a sensible increase on demand.
“Certainly the companies would prefer not to adopt these measures [the drought orders] but they are necessary”, said a spokesman for Water UK, the association of the water companies in Britain.
Thames Water has recently demanded the building of desalination plants near to London to assure the increasing demands, but the request was rejected by the mayor Ken Livingstone.
“Our duty is to plan for the future, and we are concerned that, without new sources of water, we will be unable to meet these increasing demands”, a spokesman of the company has said at the occasion.
According to the water expert Adel Darwish, the company is more concerned about its profits than with the planning.
“Thames Water should diminish its leakage levels, which are the highest in UK instead of pleading for desalination”, Mr Darwish has said.
“They suggested desalination because is cheaper for them ”, he said.
Bolivia government in row with water companies
The Bolivian government lead by the president Evo Morales has engaged a stiff dispute with water companies in the country in the last weeks.
During a nationalization process over the services companies in the country, the government decided to play tough and went to an open war with multi-national water management companies Suez and Aguas de Ilimani.
The government alleges the companies are not furnishing good services nor respecting deadlines established in previous contracts.
French-owned Suez, for example, is in charge to manage the water in the capital La Paz.
But according to the minister Abel Mamani, the services are below the agreed conditions and the company is exceeding the charging fees permitted, other than polluting the Titicaca Lake, the biggest water reservoir of the country.
Aguas de Ilimani, also a multi-national subsidiary, and was hired by the government to work out the cleaning of the Titicaca, but would be below par, according to the minister.
The government of the country is trying not to take extreme measures after the nationalisation of the gas and oil industries.
Mamani is currently in Paris trying to settle a friendly agreement, as a state-managed water company is being planned to take care of the water infrastructure in the country.
MP considers compulsory water metering
Former Tory leader Michael Howard said this week that compulsory water metering may now have to be considered if drought conditions look set to become a more regular occurrence.
Mr Howard played a central role during the water privatisation process during the Conservative cabinet rule under Margareth Thatcher.
The current government is not considering the adoption of permanent water metering devices, according to Environment minister Jeff Rooker and the policy is not under the Tory proposals so far.
Michael Howard’s statement came on an Radio Four interview.
"We don't know whether the current drought is going to be typical of
conditions in the future or whether it is going to be yet another
exceptional feature”, he said.
“If drought is to become a regular part of the scene then it may be that compulsory water metering will have to be introduced."
In some parts of UK where the water supply is limited for geographical reasons, like the Isle of Wight, the water metering devices are already in use for a few years.
Mr Howard also underlined the fact that the current South England drought is the third worst ever on record and classifies as “understandable” that ministers haven’t foreseen the water shortages at the time of the privatisation.
“The global warming phenomenon was not part of the debate back then”, he said.
“It may be now that we will have to face droughts more regularly but, at that time, drought wasn't uppermost in people's minds."
“Water metering is not so bad”
England is discussing the possibility of having permanent water metering throughout the country after Tory MP Michael Howard declared that the measure should be taken seriously.
The idea was criticized by customers and Ofwat, the water regulation agency, called for a tighter control of the leakage levels first.
But residents in areas where the meters are already a reality say that it is not as bad as it sounds.
Bridget Lewis, of the Great Preston Road, Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, affirms that the matter is easy to handle.
"I don't think it is a very difficult issue to handle", she said.
The Isle of Wight uses meters since the last decade and is one of the parts of the country under hose pipe bans in this summer.
"This is the first hose pipe ban in years."
"People are very supportive towards these measures because they are aware of the importance of the water use and that overuse of water is a bad thing".
Mrs Lewis admits that the problem is not pleasant, but underlines other concerns.
"To be honest, it is slightly inconvenient, once you have to wash your car with buckets and you cannot water the garden freely, but people are much more concerned with unattended leaks than anything else".
"There has been some improvements in the Island, like change of pipes and things like that, but we never know if it is the most they can do", she said.
