(AD) With 3 children in the house I am very aware that we use a lot of water. I became even more aware of the importance of water last year when there was a problem with our supply and we didn’t have any running water for a day. Our water company provided bottled water but as those plastic bottles piled up in our recycling I realised how much water we use every day. Even something as basic as flushing the toilet (which we normally do without thinking) used about 20 of the 500ml bottles of water!

Using less water means there is more for ducks to swim in

Why Does Saving Water Matter?

For those of you with a water meter saving water means saving money, something we all want to do, but why else would we want to use less?

Affinity Water are encouraging people to use less water as part of their Save Our Streams campaign, the UK’s biggest ever water saving initiative. The water that ends up in our taps comes from the local environment, flowing through nearby rivers and streams before it reaches our homes. Quite simply the more water we use the less water is in our streams. It’s a particular issue in summer when the streams are at risk of drying up leaving the plants and animals with nowhere to go.

Chalk streams in particular are very rare and are an ideal environment for various plants and animals including otters, kingfishers and water voles. Of the 260 true chalk streams on the planet, 224 of them are in the English countryside, and most of these are in the South East. The beautiful clear water is rich in minerals because it rises up through the Chilterns before flowing through the local area. 

Tips To Use Less Water

10 seconds less in the shower can save 3 litres of water. That’s enough to make over 60 cups of tea!

Talking of boiling the kettle, make sure you only boil what you need and you will save water and electricity. Next time you need a new kettle look for one which allows the minimum of a one cup boil.

Set an alarm when you go in the shower so you don’t stay in too long, or shower just before the programme your children are watching finishes, they’ll soon come and tell you!

Bathe your children at the same time, or if that leads to fighting, use the same bathwater. Start with the eldest child who will probably like the water warmest and is less likely to wee in it.

After the bath you can even use the water for the garden.

Constantly nagging my children about turning the tap off doesn’t work very well so I love the water saving devices that cut down how much water is used without changing their behaviour eg the bags which go in the toilet cistern so less water is used with each flush or shower regulators

Sign up to get involved in the Save Our Streams campaign to get more tips and order FREE water saving gadgets. All you need to do is click here, enter your postcode and take a quick quiz on your water using habits and they will give you recommendations on how to save water. If you live in an eligible area (Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Surrey and some London Boroughs) you can choose FREE gadgets to reduce how much water you use by 25 litres a day!