What can I do - save water?

On average in the UK we use over 150 litres of water per person per day. That's the equivalent of almost two baths!

This compares to around 575 litres per person per day in the USA, whilst Mozambique uses less than 10 litres per person per day. Most people seem surprised at how high the figure is, but once it's broken down it is easy to see where the water goes.

According to figures by Waterwise we use 45 litres flushing the toilet, 40 litres showering, bathing & washing and 20 litres washing clothes, whilst the rest is split between a variety of activities including cooking.

There are lots of things you can do to save water ranging from washing the car with a sponge and bucket instead of a hose, fitting a displacement device in your toilet cistern to fitting a rain water harvesting system.

The latter option might seem costly for a large scale system, but you can easily get going with a small water butt, which can harvest and save up to 5,000 litres of water a year. That's almost 10% of average consumption over a year and is great for irrigating home grown crops.

Also if you are buying a new dishwasher or washing machine then consider a low water use machine.