With water saving week approaching at the start of next week, we thought it would be the perfect time to share some water saving tips with you that you can employ into your daily routine. One of the true reasons BabyDam was invented was to save water at bath time. Whilst we continue to try and educate the public that we should be perceiving water as a valuable resource and keep up to date with water scarcity news around the world, it was only recently that we spoke with Steph from Waterwise and we were totally shocked by what she had to tell us…
‘In the UK, there is the perception that it rains a lot, however, London actually gets less rainfall than Sydney, Istanbul and Morocco. Many areas such as the South East, are classed as water stressed and rivers and wildlife are suffering. Along with population growth and climate change, under a ‘best case’ scenario, the global temperature will still rise by 2°C. In the UK, this means longer dry spells in summer and warmer, wetter winters. Growing seasons will lengthen and we will face more extreme weather events such as droughts and storms’.
We were totally shocked by this statement, as I certainly speak for everyone in the south west of the UK that it really does rain A LOT! How can we be short of water? Why should be save it? It’s the questions that are on a lot of peoples minds when asked to start saving water. However, this continues to reinforce the fact that we base our thought processes on what we have always known, we aren’t educating ourselves on the impact we are all collectively having on this planet. Climate change is a real thing, and it’s happening now. Change does need to start today in order to preserve our water supply for future generations.
The current daily average water consumption in homes per day is 140-150 litres, with a good proportion of that used in the bathroom. Showers and baths are by far the biggest consumers of water in the home, closely followed by toilets.
We can’t choose to evade climate change, but we can each do our own bit to help save water in our own home. Here’s how you can cut down the biggest black hole of water consumption in your bathroom…
1. Turn off the taps when you’re brushing your teeth or lathering your hands with soap.
2. Time your showers! Take shorter showers, if you shower for more than 5 minutes you could be using more than a bath full of water!
3. Switch the shower off when you’re lathering your hair and body and switch back on when you’re ready to rinse off.
4. Use a BabyDam Bathwater Barrier for baby’s bath time. You can save up to 56 litres of water when fitted at the halfway point of a standard sized bath and filled up to the max line. Why fill the whole bath when half or less will do for a little one?
5. An average bath = 80 litres of water. By running it just an inch shorter too can save around 5 litres of water.
6. If you bath a lot, try and have one less bath a week and replace with a shorter shower.
7. Install a water saving shower head. Check out your utility companies website as many offer them as freebies, alongside many other water saving devices that once fitted will do the hard work for you.
8. If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down! Only flush your toilet when you need to, a toilet uses around 13 litres of water per flush. As the second biggest consumer of water in the bathroom, even by cutting this down by half would have a massive reduction on your water usage.
9. Regularly check for leaks in your bathroom and any leaky taps. You’d be surprised how much water AND money this can cost you if left undetected.
10. If you’re shaving or washing your face, by popping the plug in the sink and filling it to a shallow depth, this can save around two litres of water each time.
11. Collect your shower water! If you’re waiting for the water to heat up or are looking to preserve your water even further, place a bucket or even use a BabyDam underneath the shower head to collect the water (a BabyDam won’t restrict your movements in the shower like a bucket!). You can then reuse this water around the home or in the garden for watering your plants.
Take a look at our water saving devices for the home post for more water saving inspo! Water Saving weeks starts on the 29th April, we’d love to see your water saving tips during the course of the week to help us raise awareness, don’t forget to #WaterSavingWeek so that we can see and share your content. We hope to see you next week!
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