Waste of treated water

Iwannahurl

A report on the Galway News website today (and in the City Tribune also, presumably) highlights the problem of water waste in the city due to leaks on private property.

According to the report (http://www.galwaynews.ie/30483-householder-could-have-face-%E2%82%AC47000-water-charge) "the Top 10 ‘worst offending’ leaks identified by the local authority – all private homes – would rack up a water bill totalling €225,000 for the year."

The scale of the water waste was revealed in a leak detection survey carried out by Galway City Council.

If accurate, the figures quoted in the article (which for some mysterious reason are in luddite gallons) are staggering.

One property in St Claire's, off Taylor's Hill, was allegedly consuming 61250 litres of water every day, the leak survey found.

A house at Ros Aitinn off the Clybaun Road was found to be using 50,000 litres per day, while another property at St Brendan’s Terrace in Woodquay was using 35,000 litres daily.

The Galway News report also states that the average ‘normal’ daily consumption (per household, presumably) is 500 litres, which is rather startling in itself.

In Europe, daily water consumption at the household level ranges from around 80 litres in Lithuania to around 250 litres in Spain. Source: http://www.wecf.eu/download/2012/wsp/WSP_Module_11_Daily_Fife.pdf

Sponge Bob

If you lose 50% of your treated water as Galway does then 500 litres produced per household and minus 50% = 250 litres. A journalist cannot be expected to differentiate between consumption and production of course.

I heard somewhere a year ago that only 30% of the water that leaves the treatment plant in Galway ends up in the other treatment plant in Mutton Island. We must sweat a lot too.

Iwannahurl

Just found some quite different H2O consumption figures:

"Household water consumption in Europe ranges from an average 216 litres per person per day in new Member States to 247 litres in northern EU-15 Member States and 329 litres in southern EU-15 Member States."

http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/eea_report_2005_11/at_download/file

Galway's 500 litres isn't looking so bad after all, unless it's a per person figure.

It's hard to reconcile both the sweating and all that apparent washing...

antoobrien

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Galway's 500 litres isn't looking so bad after all, unless it's a per person figure.

Those figures are per household

Edit - the usage in parts of Dublin is significantly higher than that at 597L, with the assumed average being 450L.

markpb wrote: »

The full report on the study is available on the Council Website and was submitted to the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government to facilitate consideration of new public policy to address leakage. The initial findings were quite incredible with the three highest usage recorded as 35,309 litres/day (equivalent to water used by 80 houses), 21,506 litres/day (equivalent to 50 houses) and 13,880 litres/day (equivalent to 30 houses) respectively. In summary, three houses had recorded use equivalent to 160 Houses in an area with 212 dwellings. These leaks were between the road and the house and were repaired by householders. The key findings, which appear to be consistent with other data, are that there was excessive use on up to 6% of dwellings with a small number quoting astronomical use.

After repairs by householders, usage per property is higher in this area than assumed, being 597 Litres/House/Day as opposed to an assumed 450 Litres/Property/Day and customer side leakage was measured at 135 Litres/Property/day compared to assumed figure of 66 Litres/Property/day. This study will provide invaluable input into the debate on the new public policy for water conservation being discussed at central Government.

Sponge Bob

Bit hard to explain but I'll try. The Dept of Environ has funded water conservation measures called stage 1 2 and 3. Stage one measures involves putting meters on MAINS and noting if consumption say to Hazel Park is higher than Cherry Park and then following up to see why. Same out the county where a load of meters were installed on boreens to see where the leaks were.

People should also be wary about scammers calling door to door pretending to be the council investigating 'pressure' or leaks. If the council identifys you as a leaker they will POST a NOTICE telling you to sort it out within 28 days or else they may tell you at the door that they will send you a written notice but they won't EVER try to enter your house for any reason OR ask for money to fix anything. And it is your problem and you must fix the leak if you do get the notice.

If someone does call to the door scamming for money for fixing a leak(as happens a lot in Dublin) then report them to the Guards immediately as well as to the council.

2rkehij30qtza5

Those figures you quoted OP in your initial post re: water usage per capita are incorrect. In Ireland, the design figures used are 225 litres per person per day...this would include water used for cooking, cleaning, showers, toilets etc. So unless each household only has 2 people (or less if you go by your figure), that figure does not make sense...or unless they are using their own rain harvesting system/own well and not using public water. But they would still average the 225L/p/d.

Iwannahurl

The figures in the link below are substantially higher.

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Just found some quite different H2O consumption figures:

"Household water consumption in Europe ranges from an average 216 litres per person per day in new Member States to 247 litres in northern EU-15 Member States and 329 litres in southern EU-15 Member States."

http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/eea_report_2005_11/at_download/file

Galway's 500 litres isn't looking so bad after all, unless it's a per person figure.

It's hard to reconcile both the sweating and all that apparent washing...