The Price of water

[Dave 54]

Jesus just got the water bill through for this year what a rip off over £700 UK the highest bills in the UK some inlarger houses have to pay upwrds of £1,000 yet the lowest bills in the Country Westminister now isnt that sort of strange eh it just happens to be where our MP's hang out plus some of the richest people in the UK
It really annoyes me we are just cash cows to a privatization that wasn;t thought out and rushed through Parliament wayback in the 1990's
Our average bills in those by-gone days the same as it costs for water in westminster around £260 or so.
We would ike to see a system like with electric and gas were you can shop around which is how it should have been set up
I can see this lot if this ever happens going bankrupt rather fast Oh please oh please ( oh dear a pipe dream) the reason for the hike to such a high amount to clean up our beaches strange how surfers against sewage still complain of sickness and ear infections
They claim not our fault its all the bad weather and huge amonts of rainfall that flushes sewerage into the sea, or sorry a pumping station failed or a pipe split(three times)in the same place nr Dawlish where the railway lines were washed away it make one so very very angry

Dave

 

[Catfishnut]

Dave,

My face just fell right into my porridge bowl! £700 comes out to about $1,158 USD and I thought I was being ripped off! I pay $648 USD (or £393) per year for water and sewer line fees (combined) for a minimum. That is just to have service connected and no usage. If I actually use water and sewer, it may raise that, but not a whole lot because I am just a single person in that home so I don't use much at all. I could water my 1/2 acre lawn during every month of the year and not raise my bill that much.

All I can say is OUCH!

Gordy

 

[addy1]

Wow that is horrible! We are on a well and septic, so no water bill, no sewer bill.

 

[Catfishnut]

Addy,

You may have no monthly bills to a utility company or municipal enterprise, but you still have bills. You have the electric bill for the pump every month, obviously. Maybe some water treatment costs (water softener). But, you also had to incurr the cost of installing the well and the pump and the septic tank and every so often you have to pump out the septic. Correct? But, I bet your bills averaged out over the years and months with all included still don't come near to what Dave just paid!

Gordy

 

[addy1]

For sure, our electric is on average 150 a month. We don't treat the water, it is too soft already, just have a filter that cleans itself, installed by previous owner. Well and septic tank were here when we moved in, never have touched the septic, it is doing great without pumping out. No debris, but I am careful about what goes into it.

So we pay around 1800 a year for all of our utilities.

 

[Lisak1]

We pay about $900 a year for water and sewer combined - that's a 50% increase from two years ago when our village installed a new water treatment facility that needs to be paid for. It was necessary - our village has nearly doubled in size in the last twenty or so years. We have argued for years however (even before the huge jump) that we should not pay sewer rates on the water we use outdoors, since that water doesn't go down the drain but rather into the ground (or pond!) Previously you could only get a credit if you could show you installed new lawn that needed watering or once a year to fill your pool. We just received notice that we can install a separate meter on the outside water and we will only pay the water charge for that usage - finally! So that will take a bit of the bite out. We may just start bathing in the pond!

 

[Dave 54]

We could go on a meter ( i made sure we cant before installing the pond , then god knows what our bill would be like however we must all feel for those for who water is a luxury after having to walk miles per day to get often dirty polluted water.
One thing the UK did was export the idea to Africa and South America people siply could not afford to be even connected they often illegally plumbed into the water pipesbut in the end the governments saw privatized water for what it is a huge rip off and either kicked the companies out or turned a blind eye to the illegal tapping of water .
The connection fees were over a years wages for some.
Water should be a right not a rip off , I go on http://www.care2.com/ and get points for commenting on issues these points I then can use to cash in for clean water for a day for an african family the more points I run up the more days they get its one of many things you can do with them but all are exellent causes

Dave

 

[Lisak1]

You are right Dave - we are lucky that for us water is so available and clean and that we can even consider using it simply to enjoy. The big pond company here in Illinois (Aquascape - can I say that here?) has a charitable arm that is working to help create sustainable water sources in countries that are without reliable clean water. The most recent effort is in West Africa installing a rainwater collection system.

We are lucky in so many ways.

 

[Fishylove]

Hello everyone! its been a long while since ive been on...Too long! I think I actually was hibernating! Lol.
Looks like ive missed lots and will have to catch up...

 

[mrsclem]

Our water bill is an amazing low $21. month. It is metered and had an allowance of 18,000gal. per 3 months. They have installed new meters and will now be reading every month. Should even out those high June & July bills for water changes.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

We pay about $800.00-$900.00 a year for water and sewer charges. Just started having to pay for trash pick up this last year. That cost was just under $200.00 for the year.

Nothing is free in this life!

 

[addy1]

My water bill in arizona was high, but being a desert I guess they are trying to keep people from wasting it.

 

[Priscilla]

I pay about US$140 a month. $1680 a year. Thankfully I have a well, so I use well water for watering the yard and filling the pond. Otherwise, I couldn't afford to have grass. I had a friend that used city water to water his yard - $500 a month in water.

Electricity ...... painful my friends, painful. A good month will run us $600 USD a month. A super hot month will run us $1000 a month.

The joys of living in paradise.

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Priscilla those costs are just plain crazy!

 

[morewater]

Our natural gas provider, Enbridge, has just stated that due to the harshest winter in recent memory, that natural gas is going to go up in price by 40% (of course, that will be taxable at 13%, so that 40% increase is really somewhere in the neighborhood of 45%).

To add insult to injury, we got a letter in the mail asking us to check our meter reading and then to phone it in to them. Now, that's testicles!

I called them and told them that I charge $48.50/hr with a 4 hour minimum.

They said they'll send out a meter reader.