The myth of water meters Eau Secours（水表淡造成的神话）.pdf

The myth of water meters Martine Ouellet Vice-president of SOS Water Coalition Eau Secours! Holder of a MBA from l’École des Hautes Études Commerciales and a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from McGill University, she also was on the board of directors and the executive committee of the Société québécoise d’assainissement des eaux (SQAE) Excerpt from the study “Water meters to measure residential comsumption: a very bad idea” (Les compteurs d’eau pour mesurer la consommation résidentielle: une très mauvaise idée) by Gaétan Breton, PhD in Accounting (Sciences Comptables) and Marc-Antoine Fleury, researcher. In collaboration with Pierre-J. Hamel from INRS-Urbanisation; with special thanks to Geneviève Dubreuil for corrections. Thanks to Andréanne Demers for the traduction. 22th September 2005 To debunk the myth of water meters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 An outline of water usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Domestic water use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Residential water meters: a lure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 To reduce consumption: the better options are awareness and legislation . . . . 7 To put a price on water: municipal taxes . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 To preserve a public management of water: we are better off without residential water meters . . . 11 Commercial and industrial water meter: an essential tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Starting with leaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 To debunk the myth of water meter Wa ter mete rs have been the object of many discussions and are often deemed news wo rthy by the media. Although many things we re said about them, usually in go o d fa i th, in most cases the premises we re false and the a