Taiwan's been having water shortages recently, so to remedy this situation, the government has started a series of [no-water] days, at least in Taipei. Basically, government guys come around and shut off your building's water like one day a week or so. Frankly, I think it's a pretty silly idea. People find ways to get around this ban- where there's a will, there's a way. For instance, my (extended) family has several households in a pretty close area, so when one house has its water shut off, we go to another one of the houses to bathe and whatnot. Not very environmentally friendly of us, but what can we say?

I'm reminded of an essay I read once about the actual efficacy (or rather, the lack of it) of a week-long gasoline embargo in lowering gas prices. Here's the basic gist of it: Because it's a foretold temporary shortage (stoppage) of gasoline entering the consumer market, consumers will stock up on gas ahead of time, causing gasoline suppliers to see an increase in demand, thereby causing them to boost prices. By the time the temporary embargo takes its effect, the only thing it will have achieved is to undo the price spike that they caused themselves a week earlier. Hmmmm... how does this relate to water, you say? Well, in anticipation of the water stoppage, people might start storing water in large quantities the night before.

And besides, what if there's some kind of emergency that requires water? (e.g. fire) Then you're pretty screwed. And plus, add to that the fact that you can't flush toilets or wash your hands, and you've got a pretty big sanitation problem on your hands too. (My two years on the Health & Safety commitee of student congress makes me think about that kinda thing, haha.)

No, I don't think stopping water is the answer. I think perhaps a better solution to this problem would be to quadruple the price of water for a given day of the week. That would be just as effective in discouraging water usage. And that way, if you really did need water, you could still get it... at a price.