We have lived here for the last 10 years. We always pay our water bill. Occasionally, we’ll forget and receive a final notice for our water bill which we will promptly pay.
Tonight at 8 pm, a city police officer banged on our door with a blinding flashlight in hand. Made me verify my identification and then handed me my water bill (the due date being a week from now)
What the hell!
Yes, I do live in a place that has lots of fresh water, we do use a lot, and yes, if people were paying for the amount of water they use, they would waste less
However, do you know who is using even more water than citizens? Corporations. And they pay even less.
In one region alone, 18 businesses are using more than 75 000 litres *every day", representing billions of litres of water in a year, and combined, they paid $192 000 CAD in 2019.
Before making citizens pay for every drop of water they use, and accusing them of “wasting” water, I’d first turn my attention to corporations taking our resource for peanuts.
Water is a right, not a commodity.
I mean, it’s both.