Yes, as a response to concerns about possible water shortages and the potential unaffordability of water in future, the EU is threatening to reach for the tax laws and tax water!
EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has apparently come up with the brainwave to "ensure people pay for what they use". Perhaps someone should explain water bills to him...
The EU's love of complex regulation has already managed to sneak in, showing that no idea is so idiotic that you can't embellish it even further, as Stavros has another idea to really drive the measures home.
"if someone who lives near the sea has a swimming pool, then they will have to pay more. It is only logical to tax more heavily those who can afford to have a swimming pool, when they could just as easily swim in the sea"
Even if you leave to one side the bizarre complexities of such a scheme and the enforcement impossibilities, Stavros has apparently failed to realise that the sea where he grew up, in Greece, is quite a lot more swimmable than that where I did (see the beautiful beach near my parents home pictured, right, this August). If he wants to try the Boxing Day dip at Seaton Carew, he's welcome...