Water efficiency will help us secure our water supplies in times of drought
June 1st 2010

Jacob Tompkins, managing director,Waterwise dicusses how being more efficient with water enables us to mitigate against drought conditions.With product innovation, changes in water using behaviour and better education it can be done

Two big water-related stories hit the media in June.

Thames Water's desalination plant opened on Tuesday 2 June in Beckton.The plant will be turned on during a drought to supply up to one million people.

Also in June it was announced that Northern England could face drought (according to figures from the Environment Agency) and United Utilities is urging its customers to conserve water and started implementing a drought action plan. In early June United Utilities was just two steps away from imposing hose pipe bans on its customers in the north west and as little as a week away from asking the Environment Agency for special permission to take more water from the lakes.This is stark contrast to November 2009 when Thirlmere Reservoir was overflowing during the devastating floods but after six consecutive record dry months, it is just half full and Haweswater Reservoir is only 67% full.

Both of these news stories remind us that while new resources can be built to increase our supply,we all have responsibility of reducing our consumption and using less water.

All businesses, however much water they use will feel the effects of a change in our seasonal water supplies. Small, daily, changes in behaviour will save water and help protect us from droughts.

The UK's climate is already feeling the effects of climate change and nothing reflects this more than the contrast between the 2009 floods in northern England and now the recently released drought warnings for the same area by the Environment Agency.Waterwise believes that everyone (homes, businesses and public buildings) has the responsibility of making our water go further, not just the national governments, corporate companies and water companies.

Businesses can carry out audits on their premises to assess their water use and report this back to employees so they feel engaged and interested in water efficiency.

You can then make targets for reducing your usage, and don't forget saving water not only means saving energy, it also means saving operating costs.

Public buildings can adapt taps and toilets in public areas to be more water efficient through the simple installation of tap aerators and toilet retrofit devices (which can either reduce the flush volume by one litre in the instance of a cistern displacement device, or convert a single flush toilet into a dual flush toilet with a simple conversion kit).

Dripping taps can also be mended, and posters in toilets can help remind staff and visitors to report dripping taps to a certain area – this also helps promote your environmental awareness to all visitors.

Schools have so much potential, not just to shape our future generation through teaching waterefficient behaviour and raising awareness about water, but also through retrofitting schemes.With the average primary school spending £2000 a year on their water bill (and secondary schools spending twice that amount) the payback period is likely to be short and the savings huge.

Homes of course also have the potential to save vast amounts of water – on average 1/3 (that's 50 litres) of the water we each use at home is wasted. Huge amounts of water-efficient products are now available for homes that reduce water consumption without impacting on our water using experience. Showerheads save water but still get us wet (and produce a high quality performance while looking ultra stylish), tap aerators make water feel softer whilst using less to brush our teeth, and devices for our toilets are saving litres of water at a time. It is everyone's responsibility to save water by fitting water-saving products and making small changes in behaviour.

Projects such as Tap into Savings, and Save Water Swindon are encouraging retrofits and encouraging local communities to spread the message by word-ofmouth, but still more needs to be done.

Waterwise is keen to work with everyone involved in water efficiency to help encourage our homes, schools, businesses and public buildings to use less water.

We all need to make sure that areas of the UK don't suffer from droughts this summer, and through product innovation, changes in water using behaviour and better education of the need to be water efficient we can achieve it.

www.waterwise.org.uk

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