3.4 billion Litres of Water a Day
Friday, May 11th, 2012 by Nigel
Thanks to SamHudson 2011 via Flickr for this great image
Yesterday I read this thought provoking article in the Guardian.
Despite being in the grip of one of the worst droughts in the last 25 years, over half of the water companies in the UK will not have to fix leaks in their pipes until 2015. The Guardian also found that overall, leaks will only be reduced by 1.5% during this time.
And then I read this: “Every day, 3.4 billion litres of water leaks from the system, almost a quarter of the entire supply.”
Wow. 3.4 billion litres. Every day.
I can’t even begin to work out what 3.4 billion litres of water means in terms of their carbon footprint.
The rest of the Guardian article also makes interesting reading. Whilst water companies are not fixing their leaking pipes, they’re increasing water bills, and passing the obligation to save water onto customers.
As a resourceful retailer, we’d advise anyone to live in a more resourceful way, which means making the most of what we have. Water especially is an essential resource: how often do we forget how much energy it takes to collect, treat and clean our water so it comes flowing out of the tap whenever we need it?
Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen a rise in the sales of water saving products, especially our hand siphon for re-using grey water on your garden. There’s no doubt that recent publicity around the hosepipe ban has got people thinking about how important water is, and how to use less: in the kitchen, bathroom and in the garden.
But you’d be forgiven for taking another look at your shower timer, your toilet cistern water saver, hand siphon and rain water butt, and thinking: I’m doing my bit to save water, so why can’t the company that supplies it do their bit too?
Come on Southern Water, Yorkshire Water et al, follow your customers lead and start thinking resourcefully.
