Based on what I observed when I lived in England for a while during the Thacher years was that old and leaking water pipes were unlikely to have preventative maintenance performed because it was not cost effective over the typical business forward looking time frame of say 5 years. Why would a company be looking at cost benefits over 20 years when it could lose the contact after only a few years?
However, I do see that we will need to be paying much more for water just to encourage us the use much less of it. The supply and demand can be adequately managed by a governement department given a clear directive, provided that they do not have to suffer political interference when there is a need to increase prices or to do something favourable in some marginal electorate of the prevailing government.
