The average water consumption of families affiliated with De Watergroep continues to fall. This is evident from the annual report of the water company. In 2020 an average family consumed 70.92 cubic meters of water, in 2021 it was 70.21 cubic meters. It is a slight decrease, but the downward trend has continued for about ten years. De Watergroep also wants to start a debate about the existing bill for drinking water, says director-general Hans Goossens.
According to De Watergroep, the obligatory installation of rainwater wells in new-build homes is one of the reasons for the declining water consumption. As a result, families more often use rainwater instead of drinking water to, for example, flush their toilet or run their dishwasher.
Average household consumption has been declining for ten years, albeit slightly. Peak consumption is increasing, which is why the necessary infrastructure and investments are still required, the group says. The company is planning to spend one billion euros in investments over the next five years, also to make the water network sufficiently climate-robust.
Goossens is also confident that there will always be sufficient drinking water in the coming summer. “Of course we also count on the awareness of the customers, but we are prepared to go into the summer,” it sounds.
Drinking water bill reform
The director-general also advocates a reform of the drinking water bill. This is currently mainly determined by the volume of drinking water that is consumed annually. An average family of 2 to 3 people pays about 380 euros per year. Forty percent of that amount actually goes to drinking water consumption, the remaining sixty percent is used for sewer management and water purification, among other things.
Anyone who uses less drinking water because he or she has installed a rainwater well, for example, pays less for sewage management or water purification, because those costs are linked to drinking water consumption. The rainwater still ends up in the sewage system, for example via the toilet or washing machine.
Goossens wants to reform the water bill and not only look at the price per cubic meter of water used. “There are many ways to do that. We think the debate should be opened,” said the director-general. He is also thinking of using digital water meters. De Watergroep plans to install 1.5 million digital meters by 2030. These meters could be used, for example, to introduce peak rates.
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