For a long time piped water into our homes has been taken for granted. Even the advent of compulsory water meters in some parts of Britain has been a bonus to most people, with the majority of bills going down, although larger families often end up paying more. And for those wasting water, people frequently washing their cars or hosing their gardens for example, the costs have often gone up considerably, making the profligate think twice about water use.
But as the climate crisis bites, droughts get longer, more houses are built and the environmental damage over-abstraction of water does to our streams gets more obvious, most people are going to get caught up in the rollout of smart water meters – at least in the southern half of Britain. These new meters, in a similar way to their electric cousins, will tell us quite quickly which of our habits are costing money and enable us to change them if it costs too much.
It has the likely advantage for water companies that people will use less water and gives them an ability to track where leaks are occurring. With a bit of luck it will also pressurise them to stop the massive waste of water from their own leaks and increase investment in an increasingly stressed system.
