To mark Water Saving Week – a dedicated campaign to raise awareness about why we need to save water – Mary Lavin, Sustainability Adviser at Landmarc, explains how important water conservation is to business and local communities.
When storm Desmond swept through Cumbria a few months ago, it caused heartbreaking damage and forced thousands of people out of their homes. Sadly it wasn’t the first time our communities have been affected like this, and it probably won’t be the last. We’ve experienced one of the wettest years on record, and we’re told that extreme weather events are likely to become more frequent. You could be forgiven for thinking that a shortage of water is the least of our problems. 75 per cent of the surface of the planet is covered in water, right?
Only 2.5 per cent of it is fresh, and most of that is trapped underground or in glaciers, and less than one per cent of freshwater is actually available for human consumption. As a small island nation with a growing population, the UK has less available water per person than most other European countries – in the southeast and east of England, this is a particular problem.
Even so, most of us flush the loo with it, water the garden with it and wash our cars with it, using on average around 150 litres of mains water per day, per person in the UK.
We all want to enjoy clean beaches, so sewage is refined to a high standard. We want water to be available to use just where we need it, so it’s pumped long distances from reservoirs, rivers and aquifers. We want some of it to be hot, some of it to be cold, and some of it specially filtered, so when we use water, we’re indirectly use energy and chemicals too without thinking about it.
That’s why, this Water Saving Week, it’s important for all of us to take a look at our individual and household water consumption.
There’s so many easy ways to cut back on water usage too, many of which only require simple changes that we can all implement in our daily routines. Here’s a few ideas based on what we do across the military training camps to help conserve water use:
- Make sure that dripping taps and leaking pipes are tended to, especially if it’s been a particularly cold spell
- Fitting a hosepipe with a trigger nozzle can halve the amount of water used
- When making the next cuppa, using just enough water in the kettle and re-using cups throughout the day can help cut back on wasted water
- Fit a water saving devise on taps and showers. These can restrict the flow of water, which will also help to save money on the utility bills
- Make sure the dishwasher is full before turning it on, there’s no need to pre-rinse the dishes – a good scrape will do!
- Enjoy drinking plenty of tap water! Plants love to have a drink of any that’s left over in your glass
How water wise are you? You can share your water saving tips with us on Facebook (Landmarc Solutions) and Twitter (@LandmarcNews) using the hashtag #watersavingweek.
Find out more about water, Water Saving Week and the ‘Give Me Tap’ initiative at www.waterwise.org.uk.