Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Scott Chilcote <scottchilcote AT earthlink.net>]

Michael Czeiszperger wrote:
> We do pay for water, just not enough given that its becoming scarce.   
> Say the local governments decide to follow your advice and charge  
> enough to reduce consumption for most people, the side effect is that  
> any price sufficient to make the average person conserve would mean  
> that water would become much more expensive for the poor, and using  
> water would be become a symbol of wealth, both with unintended  
> consequences.  Instead, we've taken the tact of making water  
> relatively cheap, and are using voluntary bans, peer pressure, and  
> minor penalties to restrict usage.
>
> It very well may be that your suggestion may work, but do we really  
> want to make it so that a green lawn is a sign of wealth?  Wouldn't  
> that simply lead to people using even more water to show they can  
> afford it?

It's not the fact that we don't charge enough for water that makes us 
wasteful.  It's the inefficient water systems that we use.  We spend a 
huge amount of money and energy making water pure enough to drink, and 
then use only a tiny fraction of that as drinking water.  The rest is 
used to flush away wastes, water lawns, and wash stuff.

At a larger scale our water purification systems are haphazard at best. 
 On some of our major rivers, communities downriver pay extra to remove 
waste products added to the water by industries upriver.  There's no 
coordination or cooperation.

Compared to the advances we've made in using electricity, our water use 
is still in the stone age.  Washing machines and flush toilets that use 
water more efficiently have been on the market for several years, but 
they're more expensive and are only beginning to interest consumers. 
The decision whether to use them is most often made buy builders who 
have no incentive to pay for them, so when they are purchased they're 
typically replacements for worn out, old equipment.

Rainwater and gray water collection systems could solve a lot of our 
water usage problems.  The knowledge we have today could make our use of 
water a whole lot more efficient.  Increasing the amount of research on 
using water efficiently would help even more.  Other countries where 
water is more scarce are well ahead, so we could gain a lot just from 
seen what they're doing.

--
Scott C.