Wasting Water

[rowyn]

WSJ article on low-flow showers. Includes, among other things, government regulation of showerhead pressure, plus bonus ways of subverting said regulations, and possible new regulations under consideration.

So ... stupid question: if the goal is to get people to stop wasting water, and if most municipalities own the waterworks … why don’t the municipalities raise the cost of water? I mean, I don’t care about my water usage because water is cheap.  If water weren’t cheap, I’d take steps to use less.  Don’t other people think that way too? It worked for gas when gas hit $4 a gallon; people started driving less. Am I missing something in the basic supply/demand equation here?

Comments

[rowyn]

Ahh, I see your point. We might be happy enough making showers more expensive, but making farming more expensive has a huge ripple effect, and there's no elegant way to do the one without the other (though we already have and use inelegant ways of subsidizing water use on farms, as Telnar noted).

The air-mix shower that tricks you into thinking you're taking a regular shower is the nicest idea from the WSJ article. Assuming it works and isn't just like Jurann's misty-shower that doesn't feel like it's rinsing you off. >:)