Water Conservation and Resuse Strategy for Ireland

The traditional approach to meeting increased demand is to augment supply. However, mobilising new resources involves ever higher costs. Increasing water efficiency by reducing the amount of water required to accomplish a given task can significantly contribute towards balancing supply and demand. The water saved as a result of PCC reduction can be used to augment existing supplies. This can be the least cost option, particularly when the environmental and social costs of developing new resources are included in the analysis. Allied to this is the concept of sustainability, which can be defined as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. An important consideration in itself, sustainability forms a major part of the EU water strategy outlined in the Water Framework Directive 2000. The concept of water conservation and water saving technologies are set to play a major role in our lives.