The growing anxiety about Irish water supplies

There have been occasions for some years now when there have been water shortages or threats of water shortages in Ireland, particularly in the Dublin area. Occasionally the water supply has been turned of for periods of the day to conserve the supply. In some parts of the country we have also had boil notices because the water is not safe to drink.

Then there is the long term worry that high water charges will be imposed in the long term, particularly if Irish water was ever to be privatised. Would the charges in Ireland ever go as high as €5 per 1000 litres? This is the cost at present for the mains water supply to home owners in parts of Germany and Denmark.

One alternative for homeowners is to take matters in hand and to provide our own domestic water supply systems, such as rain water harvesting. Assuming that water charges are going to be applied in the future – and assuming you are taking on a 25 year mortgage on your new house it’s probably economically worth while to invest in a reliable low capital cost rain water harvesting system that also costs almost nothing to run or to operate.