Water the new controversy this week - but be thankful we have plenty of it

Just a few kilometres across the sea from Ireland, the English newspaper The Guardian ran a headline on Monday: 'Wildlife and farming disaster warning as drought spreads across England'. The accompanying article went on to outline how the drought could last beyond next Christmas, prompting government officials there to start planning for a long-term water shortage that could be "disastrous for wildlife, the landscape and farming". Large swathes of the midlands and south-west have entered 'official drought status', meaning water companies in those areas can apply to place restrictions on water use for households and businesses. This could mean an extension of the hosepipe bans in the south of England. There is an incontrovertible argument for having a plentiful supply of clean water. It is a life force which touches every aspect of our lives, whether we are in the workplace, on the farm or at home. How lucky we are, then, that we don't have to perform a rain dance every spring and summer and that we have plenty of water and are not threatened with regular drought condition restrictions. Most of us have little knowledge of how water is supplied to us by our local authorities. It just doesn't fall from the sky and into our taps - there is a mostly hidden but massive infrastructure operated by the councils in bringing water to us. It comes free to most of us, except for commercial interests, and it is little wonder that we often take it for granted. In Meath, the county council supplies 45 million litres of water every day. One of the main purpose of its water services department is to ensure an adequate supply of water, but equally important is conservation. In 2006, this newspaper reported how the council was losing over half the water it produced and a big hunt was on to plug the leaks in the system responsible for such large-scale wastage of a precious resource. An accompanying article outlined how Meath had an "unaccounted for water" (leaks) level in excess of 50 per cent of total drinking water produced. In fact, at some stages, it reached 63 per cent. At that time, the local authority was addressing the problem through improvement works, including the replacement of distribution mains in Navan town. The Department of the Environment recognised that Meath was a rapidly developing county which had experienced huge population growth of about 10 per cent per year, and it made €16 million available for water conservation and rehabilitation of the older mains in poor condition throughout the county. It is to our shame that the same article in the Chronicle recorded that "some of the new developments built in recent years are found to have high leakage which, in turn, imposes greater demands on the water supply and distribution systems". Due to the work put in by the council, the leakage rate is down to just short of 35 per cent now, a creditable performance, although this comes with the health warning that the council has been concentrating on "low hanging fruit" in terms of leaks and that that the remaining 35 per cent wastage rate will be a tough nut to crack. Of course, when we all have to start paying, parents' cries will change from "switch off those lights" to "turn off those taps". We have a vigorous media in this country so it comes as little surprise that we have a new 'controversy' every day. Up to a week or so ago, it was RTE and the national newspapers (and some competing radio stations) deciding that the fallout from the Fr Kevin Reynolds libel action was the issue of the day. Little surprise also that your average man or woman in the street didn't have the RTE 'controversy' on their priority list. And so it goes with the water 'controversy'. We all know that universal water metering and charges are coming down the pipeline (forgive the pun) so we are not being ambushed on this issue. Again, the problem for the government seems to lie in how it communicates news to the general public. For goodness sake, we are spending enough money on ministers' advisors and programme managers (not to mention expensive PR coaches) to enable them to get it right and to avoid these constant rows. These gaffes are painting the government as dysfunctional - it really is time they got their act together.