Under the bridge

The city government of Amsterdam has decided last year that it wanted to change the way people living in Amsterdam use water. The rules used to be that you payed a certain amount of money each month based on the amount of places in your house that you can use water from. For instance, if you have a big house with three bathrooms you pay more than if you have one. I never quite got the system completely, but overall I think nobody was really bothered by it.

The city government, however, was. We, the people, appareantly were using too much water. They also told us, the people, that we were paying too much per month and that with the new rules we'd probably end up paying less per month. Call me stupid, but if we were paying too much maybe we just weren't using enough water?

Anyhoo, the rules changed and about a month ago I received a letter warning me that a watermeter would be installed in my apartment. The letter explained that the procedure was quite simple but that the water-meter-install-people (which, I believe, is the technical term for their job) needed to be able to get into my home. Also, the letter warned me in a very Martha Stewarty way, that even after the thing was installed I still was not allowed to leave the house because waterpeople (the non technical term) had to check if everything worked after they were done. Also, the letter informed me that during the process the water would be turned off and because of that I should tap water for drinking, cooking and "using your toilet".

Right.

Knowing the efficiency of the Amsterdam civil servants I was already preparing myself mentally for spending days without water, dragging myself through my appartment surrounded by long emptied water bottles and waterpeople telling me they'd probably be done within a year. In fact, they were done within an hour. The installing proces was indeed quick and simple, the water people very qualified and the one installing my water thingie and I spent the 20 minutes he was working in my bathroom humming along to my new Creedence Clearwater Revival cd. The thing worked fine and no problems occured. So all's fine.

..... except that I hate having this thing. It works fine but I can't stand knowing how much water I use. Did you know that flushing the toilet takes 6 litres? SIX! Doing the dishes costs me 3 litres and taking a normal shower 25 to 30. I know I pay per every 1.000 l. but I can't stand knowing how fast I'm moving towards that.

This past week I've told about every single friend I have this story. Most got the clue that this means I expect them not to use my bathroom more than 3 times during their visit. It hasn't gotten so far that I bang on the bathroom door and tell them to quit it, or stop offering drinks after the bathroom break quota has been reached... but I'm considering it, and that's why the water thing is scaring me.

So please, city government: I don't mind paying more and I promise I'll keep my water usage to a minimum but can we please go back to the old system?