Professor Tom Collins:

Wilful waste is unlikely, but accidental waste is a possibility. Excessive usage can be deliberate. A swimming pool could be considered wasteful, possibly wilfully so. We need to find a way of building personal responsibility for the use of the resource. This should not be seen as a revenue-generating exercise. There are issues on whether the return on investment justifies the investment. I am a member of a group water scheme. In the late 1990s that scheme was broke. It had been charging a flat rate to its members. Group water schemes include domestic users and non-domestic users such as farmers. When that scheme moved to meter-based charging, in one year usage was reduced from 18 million gallons to 11 million gallons. This was not entirely due to conservation. Farmers sank their own wells. The question of equity for different users is more complicated than just giving everybody the same amount. Those with private wells can supply their household, business and many other things.