Chapter 4B: What will this cost me?

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To the teacher

Purpose

To have students recognize that Canadians get a real bargain with their water and to explore whether we would use and waste less if we had to pay a more realistic cost.

Subject areas

Math, Social Studies, Language Arts, Geography, Art, Environmental Studies

Procedure

1. Ask the students, "Why do you have to pay for water anyway? After all, water is all around us." Find out if they have any idea how much they pay for water now.
   
   
   • Remind them to ask their parents tonight how much water costs for their household.
     
     
2. After they have read the Student Information sheets, discuss the different activities together and help them interpret the charts if there are any problems. Each chart can lead to a more in-depth discussion about the ways we use water and the price we pay for water in Canada.
   
   
   • Point out to the students that in Canada there is a large gap between the cost of providing water to Canadians and the price we pay for water use. This gap will have to be closed and we will have to pay a more realistic price for the water we use.
     
     
3. There are a number of math problems with the activities, but you may want to develop more. The charts will help you do this.
   
   
4. If you have research facilities available, you might want to have students try to find out why prices for water are so much higher in countries like Australia.

Vocabulary flat rate metered rate

References

• Freshwater Series A-4: Water Works!
• A Primer on Fresh Water: "Water – How we use it"
• Municipal Water Rates in Canada: Current Practices and Prices

Student information

Pay to use water? You're kidding!

Can this happen to you? It's ten o'clock – still early morning as far as you are concerned and you are on your way from gym to math. You stop to get a drink from the water fountain in the hall. What's this? The fountain has a coin slot! You must be kidding! Who pays for water around here?

How come no one told you about this before?

Your good friend reminds you what the announcements over the past two weeks have been telling you. From now on if you want a drink of water at school, you have three choices: you can bring your own, pay at the fountain, or buy bottled water. Seems you haven't been paying attention. You haven't felt the need until now – when you're really thirsty.

You probably think, "What do you mean, pay for water? It's all around us. Nobody in Canada should have to pay for water."

It's time to pay for the pipes

Well, somebody has to pay for water. The water you drink and use in school and at home has to come from somewhere that guarantees it is safe for human use. And that costs money. It costs a lot of money to pump, store, move, and treat water, and then to take away the waste. Check at home. You will probably find that there is a monthly water and sewage bill to cover some of these costs. But is it enough?

Several studies show that what Canadians pay for water is not enough to cover costs of operating, repairing, upgrading, or expanding. Right now, across Canada, the water-related infrastructure in many cities and towns is in need of major repairs.

What is infrastructure, you ask?

By infrastructure we mean:

• water and wastewater treatment plants
• water mains and pipes that carry water
• towers and reservoirs that store water
• sewer pipes that carry away wastewater

Somebody has to pay for the upkeep of these utilities; they don't get looked after by magic.

Right now you do pay for water, one way or another. Your household may receive a regular bill charging you for the use of water and all parts of the infrastructure. Or, if you live in a condominium or an apartment, the water and wastewater charge may be part of your monthly fee. In some provinces it is included with taxes. And in rural areas where people own their own wells and septic systems, each individual is responsible for the upkeep of the infrastructure.

How much does this cost?

Water prices across Canada are generally low. The average householder in Canada pays about $16 per month for water delivered to the residence. Monthly bills range between $3 and $31, the lowest being in areas of the west and east coasts, and the highest in the prairie provinces. As you can see from the diagram "Typical municipal water prices," Canadians pay less than many other countries for their water.

There are four basic ways that Canadians pay for water use:

1. Flat rate – all customers pay the same amount whether they use the same amount of water or not. This does not encourage conservation because the careful water watcher pays the same amount as the water waster. Doesn't seem fair, does it? In 1999, forty-three percent of people in Canada were charged the flat rate.
   
   
2. Constant rate (commonly called the metered rate) – here you pay for each unit of water that you use. With this system, you are more likely to monitor water use. In 1999, thirty-six percent of Canadians payed a metered rate.
   
   
3. Declining block rate – this method does not encourage water conservation. It means that if you are a big user of water, you pay less per "block" (or specific volume) as you get beyond the first blocks. Twelve percent of people in Canada payed a declining block rate in 1999.
   
   
4. Increasing block rate – this method is just the opposite of the declining block rate. It means that if you are a large consumer of water, for example, some industry, then you will pay increasing rates as you use more volumes of water. These rates actually penalize high use. Unfortunately, very few places in Canada use this rate pattern – only 9% of Canadians payed this rate in 1999.

The two most common ways of charging for water use are constant or metered rates and flat rates. Which rate scheme would you encourage?

What is a fair price?

Think about how important water is to our lives. We rely on a good supply of water, and our health depends on safe water – yet even now we do not pay the true cost of water. On average, we in Canada pay $1.14 for 1000 litres (which includes the cost of waste treatment) – a bargain at twice the price. If you don't think so, compare the price of good water from your tap with what people pay for bottled water: approximately $1500 for 1000 litres. Over a thousand times as much!

So what do we do to close this gap between what we do pay and what we should pay to cover the cost? One clear way to deal with the problem is to pay a realistic price for the water we use. This means that those who use more water should pay more – which also means that our water use should be metered because comparisons show those with metered rates use less water than households with flat rates.

A lot of the water we use in our households is wasted by such things as leaky faucets, faulty plumbing, and overuse of water for watering the lawn and washing the car. Much of this waste could be reduced if we had to pay a fair price for water. You would tend to think twice about leaving the hose running if you knew it was valuable water going down the drain.

Learning activities

Activity 1 – Social Studies

Some cities and municipalities have meters which tell exactly how much water you use. And this is what you are charged for. Others have a flat rate, which means that no matter how much you use, you still pay the same amount. Which do you think is the better system? Why?

In Alberta, Edmonton households are metered, while most Calgary households pay a flat rate. A study which compared use in both cities showed that the unmetered houses used 50% more water. The study also showed that metered users in both cities used about the same amount.

• Why do you think the unmetered houses used more water?
  
  
• Do you pay a metered or a flat rate?
  
  
• Find out what your monthly water and sewage bill is.
  
  
• Do you think we should pay enough for our water use to cover the full costs of water delivered to the tap and taken away as waste?
  
  
• Even at twice the price, water is still the best bargain around compared to other liquids we drink. (Look at the table on the following page.) Would your family be willing to pay more for water?

Activity 2 – Math

Champagne bath anyone?

Back in the grand old days of Hollywood, people used to talk about celebrating by taking a bath in champagne.

• Look back at the table in Activity 1 showing typical prices for popular beverages. (Champagne is a type of wine, only generally more expensive.)
  
  
• Figure out how many litres of liquid your bathtub holds. Brainstorm with your group or class for ideas of how to do this.
  
  
• Then estimate how much it would cost for a champagne bath, a bath in milk, or a sticky bath in cola.
  
  
• Compare this cost with a good old water bath.
  
  
• Using the chart, make up two math problems for other students to solve.
  
  
• Look at the cost of bottled water. How much would it cost to take a bath in bottled water? (Talk about really taking a bath!)

Activity 3 – Math

1. Study the diagram from the Student Information sheets which shows water prices in different countries and make up 10 math problems. For example:
   
   
   • True or False?  Canada and the United States together pay less than France.
     
     
   • How many times does Canada's price divide into Australia's?
     
     
2. Using a bar graph, show the same information from the diagram.

Activity 4 – Geography, Research

Ask your teacher for a blank map of the world. Using an atlas, find each of the countries from the diagram used in Activity 3 and on your blank map enter the price each country pays for water.

Find out why the prices are higher in three of these other countries.

Activity 5 – Environmental Studies, Art

A fair price for water!

Prepare a bumper sticker or a poster to convince people about the importance of paying a fair price for water used. Some of the themes you can use are listed below, but try to create a really catchy slogan.

• Paying a fair price will encourage us to avoid waste and to use water efficiently – and we will conserve water.
  
  
• By conserving water we will produce less waste and this will reduce infrastructure costs.
  
  
• The reduced demand will put less pressure on water resources in the environment.
  
  
• Fair pricing will bring in money to cover the cost of water supply and waste disposal systems.
  
  
• The costs will be shared equally by those who benefit most.

Activity 6 – Art

Working alone or with a friend, use pictures from magazines to make a collage of all the ways we use water.

Activity 7 – Environmental Studies, Language Arts

How do you use water?

Make a list of all the ways you have used water during the past twenty-four hours.

• Write down everything you and your family have done that involved the use of water around your home and at school.
  
  
• Divide these uses into two groups: those that are necessary or essential, and those that are nice but you could survive without.
  
  
• Write down those uses where you think water was wasted – or where less could have been used.

• Summarize what water means to you by completing the following statement: "Water is . . . ." Compare your statement with those of others in the class.
  
  
• Art: Suppose you were trying to tell what water means to you to someone who did not understand your language. Make a drawing to illustrate your "Water is..." statement.

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