Water Recycling

Britain has been getting its water on the cheap and may need to pay higher prices in future, consumers are to be told.

The torrential downpours that made the bank holiday weekend a washout for some holidaymakers did little to improve the long-term water shortages that the country is now facing.

A House of Lords committee will next week say that a change in national behaviour is needed to make us conserve water. That could mean higher prices and more metering of water.

It could mean consumers will need water meters to water the garden, wash the car or fill paddling pools, according to recommendations by water companies to the Lords sub-committee on water management.

David Miliband, the environment minister, will today hold a meeting with the water companies, Ofwat, the watchdog for the industry, and consumer groups.

"It is not a crisis meeting caused by the drought," said a ministerial source. "It is a look at the long-term issues with the key stakeholders."

The water industry believes that people will only change their view of water if they have to pay more. They warned the committee that Ofwat has been focusing too much on keeping the price of water down, rather than worrying about where Britain's supplies of water are to come from.

The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) said: "There is a need to encourage Ofwat to pay more attention to the adequacy of water supplies, rather than focusing on keeping water prices down."

The RAE also called on the Government to accelerate the introduction of metering. It urged ministers to reconsider legislation banning disconnection as a penalty for non-payment. Water metering was introduced for all new houses in the early Nineties, but the water companies are pressing for the Government to force all consumers to go onto metered supplies to cut consumption or pay more. Official estimates suggest only 36 per cent of the country will be metered by 2009. Thames Water, which serves 8.2 million water customers warned that the average rainfall of London was "below that of cities such as Rome and Istanbul".

"Today's society has a different view of the value of water and does not always view 'leisure activities' such as garden-watering, or car-washing either as inessential or potentially wasteful."

Legislation may be needed to regulate "these non-essential uses and the methods for reducing their impact," said Thames Water.

Water companies asked for a price increase of 29 per cent over the next five years in 2004. They were allowed an increase of only 18 per cent by Ofwat.

Although this was lower than the companies wanted, there was an outcry at the rise, which will see the average household bill go up by pounds 46 to pounds 295 by 2009.

In return, the privatised water companies have been told to do more to repair water pipes and sewers, enhance drinking-water quality and protect the environment. They will also have to relieve internal flooding from overloaded sewers.

The Veolia group, which covers 3.3 million consumers in the South- east, says that in summer, inflatable paddling pools should be allowed only for consumers with meters because they are filled every three days and use an "unreasonable" amount of water.

The Consumer Council warned that any move to allow price rises must protect vulnerable groups and those on low incomes.

Methods of storing more water have also been studied by the committee but experts say that the wiser use of existing supplies - including more recycling of water - would be a simpler and more cost- effective answer to some of the shortages. In the long term, the Consumer Council said ways of moving water across England and Wales should be studied.

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