How to optimize water costs in the city

Water makes up more than 70% of the surface of our planet. Unfortunately, fresh, drinkable water accounts for barely 3%, 70% of which is found in glaciers and snow, mainly in Antarctica. Meanwhile, Poland is one of the European countries with the least fresh water resources per capita. No wonder that the costs of supplying water to households are becoming an increasingly serious burden on local authority budgets and on the budgets of individual Polish families. Can we change this?

Why is water consumption increasing?

Water consumption is constantly increasing, and not just because of population growth. Our hygiene needs and overall consumption are also increasing. Water is needed to produce all the goods we use every day.

Meanwhile, we are buying more and more and getting rid of unwanted items or products faster and faster. Do you realise, for example, that it takes more than 17,000 litres of water to produce 1 kg of chocolate?

Excessive water consumption is also often due to our everyday small negligence within the household, such as a leaky tap, unnecessary running water when brushing teeth or washing dishes, or even an underloaded washing machine.

How to optimise water consumption?

Above all, by saving it and managing it rationally. “Appreciate water!” is the slogan for the last year’s World Water Day, reminding us what a priceless resource it is.

It turns out that we can significantly reduce our water consumption, especially drinking water, which is still being used for watering gardens, washing cars and other household sanitary purposes. How to reduce water costs? Smart retention and responsible rainwater management may be the solution.

Since joining the European Union, Poland has allocated over PLN 60 billion to construction and modernisation of water and sewage infrastructure. This is still not enough, however, and our environmental awareness leaves much to be desired…

Meanwhile, thanks to rainwater we can reduce consumption of tap water by up to a half, and thus significantly lower water costs and reduce the load on the sewage system. From a roof of 100 m2 we can collect up to 60 thousand litres of water per year!

Therefore, it is not surprising that both the Polish government and individual local authorities are increasingly willing to reach for various types of retention solutions and support them financially.

What do water costs depend on?

Scale matters above all. Where the population density is higher, the price for water and sewage is relatively lower. It is assumed that it makes economic sense to build a sewerage network when there are more than 120 inhabitants per km of network. Therefore, as a rule, charges for water and sewage services are lower in large cities.

Often water and sewerage companies, especially in smaller towns and cities, have no competition, which allows them to exaggerate prices. If, at the same time, they do not try to reduce costs (which the competition forces them to do), prices for water and sewage can be really high there.

The cost of water in a city is also influenced by local geological conditions, financial means of the local authorities or, finally, economic potential of the community.

The last but extremely important element is the existing infrastructure and network efficiency, i.e. the level of expenses related to carrying out current repairs or removing failures. It also includes the often enormous losses of water and penalties associated with environmental pollution.

Who sets water tariffs?

Rates for water and sewage disposal are set by water and sewage companies. Price proposals are then submitted in a tariff application to the State Water Management Company Wody Polskie.

It is it that since 1 January 2018, based on the amendment of the Act of 20 July 2017 Water Law and the Act of 7 June 2001 on collective water supply and collective sewage disposal, it verifies the validity of proposed charges, which is supposed to protect citizens from unjustified price increases. If PGW Wody Polskie considers the water tariffs to be too high, they may reject the application.

Optimising urban water costs

A water and sewage company, like any company operating in the market, should have competition to offer its product at the lowest possible price. This is because it is then motivated to seek savings in production and operations. As a result, it effectively optimises its own costs.

So, how do you optimise water costs? The basis is a well thought-out strategy and consistent implementation of modern and responsible investments or modernisation of existing networks, which will reduce water consumption and improve its efficient use.

Such measures make it possible not only to reduce water consumption costs, but also to improve the quality of wastewater treatment and its processing. They are also necessary to ensure that the network will serve us for many years to come and that the price for the water supplied and sewage discharged will be socially acceptable.

Modern, more efficient and, above all, ecologically safe water and sewage networks based on modular systems of retention tanks, equipped with separators, pumping stations, dry-well pumping stations and other solutions for wastewater treatment or rainwater pre-treatment is certainly a major investment. In the long term, however, it can bring about a really significant reduction in the daily operating costs of such facilities.

What is smart retention about?

Smart retention is not only a modern solution for urban water and sewage networks, but also a way to manage and monitor them. Monitoring systems and remote control of devices installed in sewerage networks are slowly becoming a standard.

They contribute to an increased level of flood protection, enable better management of rainwater retention and use, efficiently manage the operation of the entire network, increase environmental safety, and ultimately significantly reduce costs.

One such system is the Bumerang SMART, which is an integral part of Ecol-Unicon’s range of water protection devices.

This state-of-the-art solution makes it possible to control (via the GSM network) the operation of individual devices in real time. If necessary, it also enables an immediate response to any undesirable events from any location – using mobile devices such as a laptop, tablet or phone.

All data, statuses and device states return to users like a boomerang and are made available to them from a web browser, along with the ability to remotely control individual components.

Thus, smart retention management systems represent the future of water cost optimisation in cities. As these solutions are both environmentally friendly and cost-effective, they are becoming increasingly popular with municipal authorities. An example is the investment in the Budziwój housing estate in Rzeszów.