Water management – about time too

Water experts and environmentalists had been warning us about our looming water scarcity and quality problem and that we were doing nothing much about it but, now that Brussels is intervening, we are suddenly going to clean up dams abandoned for decades, start rainwater catchments projects, etc.

Why does it have to be Brussels to impose on us what needs to be done in our country? Where have our parliamentarians been (apart from working on their honoraria and pension increases) when these vital matters, like our deteriorating water supply picture, have been unfolding?

This is just another example of gross mismanagement on a national scale, as if going for an oil-fired, instead of a gas-fired new power plant (because we forgot about gas-storage facilities) was not enough.

And who suffers most from this mismanagement? Yes, you’ve guessed, it’s the poorer among us who do and not parliamentarians. If boreholes are responsible for our deteriorating underground water supply, all boreholes should be closed down and made illegal – with the exception of those belonging to the official water services authority.

Water, gas or oil under people’s private properties does not belong to them but to the nation. Swimming pools should be made to be filled with metered tap water and those who cannot afford that should have a shower instead.