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Have the government's appeals to economise water been effective? To
some extent, yes! However, at this time, the real answer can only be
anecdotal. One village, with a population of about 1,500 may give us a
clue. It is a mixed village with everything from old-style houses with
no garden, through small houses with a small garden, often paved, to
luxury villas with gardens of 1,000 m² or more, some with swimming
pools. This village has kept records and its water consumption for
April, May and June 2008 fell by 17.9%, compared with the same period in
2007. This, of course, does not take into account water from wells and
boreholes (or bottled water!). It is known that some of the boreholes
dried out during this period and it is probable that some users made up
the shortfall with municipal water. Some of the inhabitants have
deliberately stopped irrigating grass lawns, as well as obeying the
hosepipe ban. Also, the population of the village has increased by
almost 5% during the year. It is felt that this figure of 17.9% is
possibly quite representative, pending further information.
In raw figures, the per capita consumption of this village
is about 160 litres per day. Is this high or low? The World Heath
Organisation has a minimum recommendation of 100 l/day but anyone who
has experienced living on 100 l/day in modern sanitary conditions will
tell you that it is a real minimum, requiring care. 160 l is therefore
not excessive, especially as it includes infrastructure use. Can we
compare this with other countries? This is difficult because we can
never know what is counted in the figure. Elsewhere in Europe, the
figures would lie between 120 to 300 l/day but in N. America, some
authorities quote more than 600 l/day. If our figure of 160 l/day were
representative of the island, then this would seem reasonable, bearing
in mind that it is often hotter here than in other parts of Europe.
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