Vol. 477 No. 5
7 Miss Quill asked the Minister for the Environment if his Department has carried out a current assessment of the volume of treated water lost through leaks from faulty pipes; and the plans, if any, he has to tackle this situation. [9908/97]
The implementation of leakage reduction measures is one of my Department's key strategies for ensuring an adequate supply of good quality water to all users. A number of initiatives to give practical effect to this strategy have already been completed and others are under way or planned.
The most comprehensive study undertaken here into the operation and management of water supply systems was carried out in the Dublin region in 1995 on my initiative and that of my Department. It covered more than one third of households and its main purpose was to assess existing levels of service and water supply problems in the Dublin region and to advise on the cost effective future development of the water supply networks. It was commissioned in the belief that leakage reduction measures should be central to developing an investment strategy to meet the future water needs of the region.
One of the key findings of the study was that more than 40 per cent of the water produced in the supply systems in the Dublin region was being lost through leaks. The consultants recommended that comprehensive works be undertaken to significantly reduce the level of loss. On foot of this recommendation, I approved a five year programme of works in April 1996 costing £32 million with a view to saving approximately 22 million gallons of water per day, or approximately half of the current loss. Dublin Corporation is well advanced in the procedures for awarding the contract and the European Commission, in recognition of the real benefits to be achieved from the project, approved Cohesion Funding for it in July 1996. Since completion of the study, Dublin Corporation has already intensified its leaks control systems, including employing a contractor to undertake specific works which, to date, has saved almost two million gallons of water per day.
Studies of the water supply networks in the cities of Galway and Waterford were commissioned by my Department in October 1995. The results of pilot tests, which covered approximately one third of each city, have shown leaks running at approximately 60 per cent of the total water demand. The studies are well advanced and final reports are due to be completed within a matter of weeks. The final reports will be set out in a programme of mains rehabilitation and leaks control and they will be given urgent consideration by my Department when they are submitted. Similar projects were completed in the last few years in Dundalk and parts of County Meath under the European Commission funded SPRINT programme. In addition, projects under my Department's resorts initiative have been completed in Tramore and commenced in Westport.
The benefits arising from the leakage reduction measures identified in the final report of the Dublin study and the interim reports from the studies in Galway and Waterford confirm the need to make a national assessment of the condition of water supply systems. Plans are well advanced for engaging consultants to undertake a national water audit to determine for each local authority area, among other things, the need for new measures to reduce leakage. Results should be available by the middle of next year.
A number of specific projects are also being advanced in the cities of Cork and Limerick and in County Wexford. Proposals submitted to my Department by the local authorities concerned envisage that almost seven million gallons of water a day can be saved by implementing these projects which are due to start this year under my Department's water and sewerage services capital work programme. Local authorities generally have been provided with copies of a guidance manual prepared by consultants on ways to reduce leakage and have been invited to put forward proposals in this area. A number of such proposals have been received and are under consideration in my Department.
The Minister is in the last month of his term of office in the Department of the Environment. He emphasised earlier that 40 per cent of treated water in the Dublin area is lost through leakage because the pipes are 50 years old and defective. He also said that 60 per cent of water in the Galway area is lost through leakage. It is not known how much water is lost through leakage in other parts of the country. Will the Minister admit that the allocation of £32 million to tackle this serious problem is little more than a drop in the ocean? The Minister will leave office soon, following the five year lifetime of this Government, but the problem of water leakage will be left to the next Administration to address. Money will be much scarcer in the next five years——
It will be.
——than it was in the previous five years given the availability of Structural and Cohesion Funds. Will the Minister concede that is a monumental act of environmental neglect on his part?
I will leave the decision on whether I have weeks, months or years left to enjoy in the Department of the Environment to the discretion and good judgment of the people. I have been Minister for the Environment for two years and not five as the Deputy suggested. When I took office, I commissioned the Générale des Eaux study on water leakage. This area was totally neglected before I arrived in the Department. For the first time, there is comprehensive and clear data on the extent of water leakage and a comprehensive investment programme targeted at reducing leaks.
I allocated £32 million to halve the number of leaks in Dublin and I have already implemented measures which saved two million gallons of water a day in Dublin. However, the Deputy and her party want to channel scarce resources away from such capital and environmentally positive action towards the folly of spending £200 million on metering water. They want to impose the burden of paying for water on citizens while at the same time allowing leaks to continue unabated. There is nothing environmentally sensitive or economically sound about the daft proposals and various policies which have emanated from the Deputy and her party on the water issue in recent years.
As a result of my focus on water leaks, there is comprehensive data for the first time on this area. An investment programme is up and running and concrete results have already been achieved. In the years ahead, under the stewardship of the current Administration, there will be an environmentally sound and progressive policy on water and maintenance.
There are mounds of data but the problem is lack of action. The study commissioned by the Minister stated that £500 million needed to be invested in the Dublin region over the next 20 years to tackle the water leakage problem.
Not so.
The figure was £500 million. I read the study.
Not for water leakage alone.
The Minister has provided £32 million but that falls very short of the finance required. It is merely tokenism, a nod in the direction of rectifying the water leakage problem.
Since the Minister was gracious enough to mention metering, did he authorise the installation of meters in local authority houses in Longford town, Bray, Galway and Monaghan? If he did not authorise it, on whose authority were those meters installed? Was the finance for the installation of the meters provided by his Department? Is it Government policy to install meters before the election but to keep them under wraps and not inform the public about their real purpose until it is over? Is this another manifestation of the trickery of the Labour Party in saying one thing before an election and doing the opposite when it is over? The Minister should not expect intelligent people to accept that water meters are new fangled alarm clocks or underground Christmas trees. Everybody knows they were installed for the purpose of charging for water. That is obviously the policy of the rainbow coalition and the Minister should come clean on this matter and tell us the truth.
It is contained in the document.
The cheque signer is back.
That appears to be an extension of the question.
The Minister mentioned meters.
I am delighted the question has been extended. It is a measure of the economic competence of the Progressive Democrats that it decides the halving of the water loss is tokenism. That is the import of the Deputy's comments.
The KPMG report stated it would be uneconomical to meter water and that it would cost £200 million. The greater Dublin area water supply strategic study examined a range of pricing options. The Générale des Eaux recommendation was that universal metering would require uneconomic investment levels and that meters are generally expensive to install and maintain. It also said running costs are high. It agreed with the recommendation of the KPMG report that it would be uneconomical to invest £200 million in meters when more productive economic and environmental capital investments were required for leakage prevention programmes.
I will be explicit regarding Government policy because many kites have been flown by the Progressive Democrats. The kites were different colours, depending on whether they were flown by the Deputy from the west or the Deputy from the east.
That is not the case.
Stay with the meters.
This Government will not charge for water. However, if there is a change of Government, it is clear a Government involving the Progressive Democrats will not only restore the old charges for water but, on the basis of what the leader of the Progressive Democrats, Deputy Harney, said it will double the cost.
We never said that.
It wants to charge an economic cost for water. I asked my Department to work out the specifics of that but it involves a levy of at least £300 on every household. Will the Progressive Democrats come clean on that? Does it want to impose that levy on every household?
That is the Minister's economics.
Deputy Molloy said at one point that he would sign a blank cheque for group water schemes, to save his seat. However, that was slapped down by his party leader who said the party would reverse its policy on the issue because that was a mistake.
This issue involves equity.
She said they would restore the old charges if they were abolished. She did not know they were abolished on 1 January. Deputy Michael McDowell has a third version. His proposal is that £200 million of scarce capital resources should be expended in metering water supplies rather than in conserving them which is my priority and that of the Government. If returned to office, the Government will not charge domestic customers for water.
The Minister is lost.
If there is a change of Government and the Progressive Democrats are involved, it is explicitly clear there will be an onerous burden on every household. I am aware from direct contacts that the Progressive Democrats' erstwhile partner, Fianna Fáil is paddling miles away from them on that one.
Will the Minister cut out the guff and answer the question? On whose authority are meters being installed in hundreds of local authority houses? What is the purpose and who is carrying the cost?
Meters were installed in houses in areas of south Dublin as far back as 50 years ago. Local authorities charged for water up to 1 January when the charges were abolished in keeping with Government policy. Approximately 10 per cent have provided for the possibility of installing meters in local authority houses. This was not approved by the Government. Neither was it notified as determinations are made locally. Unless the Deputy wants control to be retained in the Custom House as part of a centralised system, I propose to allow local authorities to make general decisions about houses, for example, the lay out of kitchens and the number of bedrooms.
On policy, the Government has abolished domestic water charges. Whatever the Progressive Democrats may say or do, one thing is certain, if returned to power there will be an imposition on every household.
It was the Labour Party under the Tánaiste, Deputy Dick Spring, which introduced them.
When pricing policy — always good Progressive Democrats policy — determines who has access to water supplies and the poor can do without and those with money can have access to this most basic of resources, we are heading down a dreadful, unequal and unacceptable road.
The Minister is pathetic.
The Progressive Democrats never said that, the Minister is desperate.
