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

[level-head.livejournal.com]

I think you've got the right idea, in fact -- but government arbitrarily deciding what a price will be is not exactly "market-based incentives."

My water bill is about $400 per month, as I live in Southern California. This state built a good water infrastructure in the late 60s and early 70s, but the population has doubled since then and we're still using the 1970s systems.

As an aside, California's idea of market-based incentives seems to be to drive all people that create jobs out of the state.

If it were made possible for private industry to supply water, then market-based incentives would come into play. Otherwise, it is merely government fiat.

===|==============/ Level Head