Let's have a debate....who is using that water?

So, I was on the flight back to Atlanta and started chatting with the person traveling next to me. His name was Jay and he was a project manager for a software consulting firm.
Somehow our discussion on 'consulting' turned to 'water issues' in general.
I was amazed how many very interesting topics we touched on....each one of them worthy of having a debate.

I am hoping to pose these questions and issues to the readers of this blog and I am inviting you to have a dialogue or at least express your opinion.

First on the list is - Who is using that water?

Jay mentioned to me that he recently moved to a community where he did not receive any water bill. Water and sewer charges were included as part of the HOA (Home Owners Association) fees.

At first, this sounds great.....no water bill! How wonderful...

Think about it for a moment and the picture becomes clear.

Although, there were no individual water meters on homes, the 75-home community had one common water meter and water bill was evenly distributed to all residents. Cost of the water and equivalent sewer bills were included as part of the HOA payment.

So, I asked him...
Does everyone in your community have a lush green yard?

The obvious answer was Yes. Beautiful lawns.

Second question, how many people do you have in your house and how about the next five houses on your street?
Jay mentioned, we are two but our neighbors on both sides have three kids.

And sure enough....he got the gist of where I was going with these questions.

The point is....with such arrangements, people don't have any incentive to value water. Why would someone fix their leaky toilet at home? Fixing it might cost them close to $100 versus letting it run and the let everyone in the neighborhood pick up the tab for the wastage.

What about an underground leak on the pipe within the neighborhood? No one would see if, no one would feel it (in form of water bill).

Jay understood the issue very well and did make a note to bring this up in the next HOA meeting. Although, water is not a significant component of the HOA fees right now, it could and I would say....it would in a near future if the community continues to operate this way.

He has quiet a few uphill battles to fight still. Installing a water heater on every home is a significant upfront cost. In some cases, water utilities / providers will charge anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 to tap the line and install a new water meter.

So, who would pay such upfront cost?

A lot of the water utilities (providers) have water conservation plans.
However, my hunch is the water utility would also like to stay away from this issue. As installing water meters on individual homes will eventually lead to lesser water consumption. Less water they sell, less money they make. Every utility is virtually hurting for revenues and unless they increase the water / sewer rates.....they can't make up for the deficit.

The other side of the question is - why would any utility (water provider) even allow such development?

Whose responsibility is it to promote 'water-wise' development?


Back to the bigger issue here...

Atlanta has very limited resources and water being the number one in my list. We are paying far too less for water to be thinking about it and preserving it. Drought of last three years had brought much needed attention to this idea but......we are back to the 'same' after good rain in the spring this year.