Conservation

People Before Profit favours a strategy of real water conservation.

A major proportion of our expensively treated water is used for applications that do not require water refined to a high standard.

  • Only 6% of the water supplied to our homes is used for drinking or cooking.
  • The water used for washing machines need not be drinkable.
  • Water used for showering and washing does not need to be drinkable.
  • The water used to flush a toilet requires very little treatment.

On mainland Europe it has long been the practice for homes to have two separate plumbing systems. The main treated water supply is fed to sinks and baths and appliances that require it. The run-off is then recovered, filtered and pumped to areas where the same level of quality is not needed, like toilets and gardens. This practice is known as ‘Grey Water Recovery’ and could do a lot to decrease our dependence on treated water and conserve our stocks. Grey water would be suitable for almost 40% of the average household demand.

Ireland has a relatively high rainfall (over 1,250 mm per year) spread over the entire year. Most of the water that falls from the sky in this country comes in from the Atlantic and is therefore relatively clean. It is also extremely ‘soft’ and has none of the lime scale problems associated with water from river, spring or well sources.

Given these conditions, People Before Profit advocates harvesting rainwater. Some of it will have to be retro-fitted to existing buildings. But it should also be a requirement for all new buildings, both in rural and urban areas.

Another advantage to this kind of approach is that the retro-fitting work could create around 5,000 jobs for about three years, giving a much needed boost to construction sector employment.

It would also go a long way toward addressing the projected shortages for the greater Dublin area where one of the ‘solutions’ being considered is to bring water across the country from the Shannon with a huge potential environmental impact and a cost of up to and beyond €800 million.

Investigate Siteserve

Siteserv is a conglomerate of Irish building-related companies pulled together during the Celtic Tiger boom. The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), the former Anglo Irish Bank gave Siteserv a loan for €150 million, but got back just €50 million, writing off the remaining debt of €100 million.

Siteserv then went on to win a contract to install water meters and made handsome profits.

The manner which this company was favoured by state agencies requires serious investigation.