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We do our best to conserve water in our house.
We installed dual flush toilets, use low flow faucets and shower head and we don't run water when it is not necessary.
Meters are becoming mandatory, we are told, to conserve water... Yet when asked about how many cubic meters is loaded onto cruise ships the story becomes "We have lots of water" and "The Harbour Authority sells the water to the cruise ships and we have to provide the Harbour Authority with water". Notice that the question isn't answered.
As a family of 5, with three girls, I conserve as much as I can. My bill will go up with a meter. OK... Them's the breaks in 2014... Everything gets more expensive.
But I wonder... If the cruise ships didn't get their holds filled with fresh water, would our finite water sheds still be in such duress?
My questions are simple.
1. What is the total water use of Charlottetown residents.
2. What is the total water use of industry/business/government institutions.
3. How much water is used by cruise ships.
2. What is the total water use of industry/business/government institutions.
3. How much water is used by cruise ships.
Am I paranoid, or is there something going on that should be more transparent?
Thanks.
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Why am I ranting?Because I hate being told, out of one side of the mouth, that we need to conserve water so we're implementing mandetory metered water use AND at the same time be told that we have lots of water for the cruise ships when our watershed is very low or dry.
Sure is a good money generation scheme.😕
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Received a lovely response,
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As you noted, it will be mandatory to have a meter installed. According to Section 5.10 of our regulations, “all existing flat-rate customers must be metered by December 31, 2019”. In an effort to promote the installation of meters, the Charlottetown Water & Sewer Utility has a “Take Control in 2014” program in place until December 31, 2014. The program offers free meter installation and a one-time rebate that protects your rate for the first year. For further information, see http://city.charlottetown.pe.ca/volunteermeterprogram.php.
The installation of meters not only helps to conserve water by allowing customers to see what they use and be able to pay based on their usage, it provides the Utility with more accurate records. Meters will enable us to track the amount of water that is used by our customers, determine whether or not there are leaks in the system, the type of user, etc. At this point, our records do not classify residential and business customers nor do they provide a water usage breakdown since our customers are not all metered.
Based on 2013 records, 6,707,987 m3 of water was extracted and distributed to all our customers. The total consumption of our metered customers was approximately 4,588,911.43 m3. Based on the meter size, this number is made up of 1,246,679.07 m3 for single family residential and small commercial customers, 2,553,364 m3 for multi-unit residential and medium-sized commercial customers and 788,868.36 m3 for large scale commercial customers. The flat rate customers, fire protection and nonrevenue losses make up the remainder.
With respect to the cruise ships, their water is supplied through the Charlottetown Harbour Authority Inc. which is a metered customer of the Utility. Because we do not release account information on our individual customers, you would have to contact them to request the information. The Harbour Authority Inc. provides access to water for a number of facilities/events and all shipping activity (naval ships, Transport Canada vessels, cargo ships) to and from the harbour. These have varied needs for water and we have found that “many of the major hotels in the City use as much or more water than the Charlottetown Harbour Authority uses in an entire year, including the water supplied to cruise ships” (http://www.city.charlottetown.pe.ca/news.php?id=736). Our commitment is to work with our customers to ensure that they are aware of water conservation practices and to provide information to assist in making necessary modifications.