# Mains water supply



## Tom1957 (May 1, 2016)

How is the mains water supply in southern Spain, is it metered or restricted in any way? I'm just wondering because here in southern England a few consecutive sunny days seem to trigger a "drought" and hosepipe ban. 

Are there regional variations on supply and demand? I'm a bit of a gardener so this might have a bearing on where I would want to relocate.


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## Swerve (Jun 29, 2011)

In competa there is already a water ban on non essential use. Also it depends on how dry the winters have been. We usually shower or have a family bath to conserve water. Also we reuse the gray water from the bath to water the plants. It's surprising how green you can be if your having to pay for every drop. Also if you've just been for a number 1 don't flush every time it may sound petty but your using probably 10 litres of water for nothing.


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## Turtles (Jan 9, 2011)

Bills can be quite extraordinarily low. Fifteen years ago in London I was paying more than £30/month as a single person in small flat. My typical quarterly bill here for a three person family living in a three bathroom house with pool and automatically irrigated garden is around thirty euros. Unfortunately, part of the explanation for that is that sewage goes straight into the river untreated. I believe they ran into a few problems when they did that in London a while ago.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Like everybody else's, our water supply is metered and my bills amount to around €30 every two months (2 people living in a 3 bed, 2 bath house, no pool or garden to water, but lots of pot plants).

We like to try not to waste too much water because it's a scarce resource, we always take showers not baths and don't stay under the shower too long, don't wash faces with the water running, only wash up once a day and I use the water I've mopped the floors with for cleaning the pavement outside.

Urban areas tend to be the last ones to suffer restrictions if cuts have to be imposed in times of drought. It has never happened to me here, but more rural areas have had their water turned off for several hours a day, for weeks at a time.


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## Calas felices (Nov 29, 2007)

_'here in southern England a few consecutive sunny days seem to trigger a "drought" and hosepipe ban'_

It's amazing how the memory plays tricks - it would appear that the last hosepipe ban in England was in 2012!!


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## stevelin (Apr 25, 2009)

Depends where you are.We use on average 2units a week on water 2people with a pool .our bill is around 120euro every 2months


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## Tom1957 (May 1, 2016)

Calas felices said:


> _'here in southern England a few consecutive sunny days seem to trigger a "drought" and hosepipe ban'_
> 
> It's amazing how the memory plays tricks - it would appear that the last hosepipe ban in England was in 2012!!


A deliberate exaggeration on my part, and a poor attempt at humour

Thanks all for the insights


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## 90199 (Mar 21, 2010)

Our house has two water tanks underground, these tanks are fed by rainwater from the roofs, today we pumped 4000 litres of the said water to small water butts situated around the garden, this water is just for the garden. Many of the older properties here in the Canary Islands have similar systems, perhaps you have the same in the south of the peninsular.

We also have mains water.


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## Maureen47 (Mar 27, 2014)

We live in the Valencia region with 3 bedrooms , 2 bathrooms, 3 acres that need watering and a pool , we used agricultural water which is metered but very cheap , only 9 euros a month , we do however buy bottled drinking water. Town water which is drinkable is available but we chose not to go down that route due to the price difference. We do have numerous water butts to catch rainwater for the garden but at the current price its not a worry.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

We also live in Valencia but in the campo (countryside).

Many houses here have free agricultural water (we don't unfortunately) plus a mains supply which, like all properties in Spain (ISTR) is metered.

The mains supply is wonderful to drink - absolutely no need for bottled water around here.

The price for the water is minimal - we pay about 25€ per month which is for a family of 5 (plus guests), a pool, and irrigation.


We have no need for storage tanks as the water has only been cut off once in the last 10 years and that was when we had a fire and some pipes were damaged.


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## Pazcat (Mar 24, 2010)

Much depends on where you live and where the water comes from.
As far as I know we have not had any restrictions here and our water is from desal.

That said people really shouldn't be drinking the tap water here, I recently brought a digital tester and the water is so hard it constantly reads over 1000ppm which is not really good enough.
You absolutely need a filter system as a minimum.


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