Use water wisely

With incidences of flooding becoming more frequent it may seem hard to believe that water is a scarce resource. Surprisingly in England we have less water per person than hotter countries such as France and Italy. South East England has even less water per person, due to a dense population and lower rainfall. 

As the population increases and rainfall becomes less predictable the demand for water increases. The water we drink comes from rivers and ground water, so every drop used has a direct effect on the environment. 

Ensuring drinking water is clean enough to drink, transporting it to our homes and especially heating it all use energy, so the less you use the more you are reducing your carbon footprint!

Each person in the UK uses on average around 150 litres of water each day. Waterwise offer loads of tips to help you reduce your water consumption; here are a selection.

• Always make it a full load when you use your washing machine or dishwasher. Avoid just one laundry wash a week and you'll save over 2500 litres of water a year.
• Flushing the toilet accounts for about a third of all the water we use in our homes. Install a cistern bag and you could save 1 litre of water each time you flush.
• Turn the tap off when brushing your teeth.
• When making a cup of tea only boil as much water as you need; this saves water as well as energy.   
• Wash vegetables in a bowl, not under a running tap. Running a tap for 1 minute uses 6 litres of water. 
• Take a short shower instead of a bath, but remember, a 10 minute power shower can use almost twice as much water as a bath. For a regular shower, you can further save water with a regulated shower head.
• Collect rainwater in water butts and buckets to use in the garden.

Portsmouth Water has partnered with GetWaterFit to offer personalised water saving advice and provide free water saving devices such as cistern bags and regulated shower heads. Just answer a few simple questions about your water usage to get started.