UK Water Facts

WaterWise recently launched their new “Shower Power” campaign in an effort to reduce water consumption in the UK. 

I already knew that there’s less precipitation in the UK that what one would think.  Sometime last year I stumbled across these stats comparing my hometown to London:

• While the Twin Cities (Minnesota) has about 50% less “wet days” (108 compared to 153 in London) and more than 50% more sunlight hours per day (average 6.8 compared to 4 in London)…it has significantly more precipitation per year (28 inches) compared to London (23.5 inches).

But I was still shocked by what I found on the WaterWise website:

• “The South East of England has less water available per person than Sudan and Syria” (think about that!).
• “Large scale drought is already occurring in the UK, with the lowest rainfall, groundwater and reservoir levels for decades.”

As for water use, Water Wise says:

• 1/3 of the water we use daily is unused and wasted down the drain or the toilet.
• Average daily consumption (for cooking, cleaning, washing and flushing) is 150 litres.  Including industrial and agricultural water use for the products we buy, what is called “embedded water consumption” brings average consumption to 3400 litres per day.
• 30% of water use is from toilet flushing.  (Old toilets use up to 14 litres of water per flush.  Newer dual flush toilets use 2.6 to 4 litres per flush.)
• Water use has increased by 1% per year since 1930.
• Finally, “this consumption level is not sustainable in the long-term.”

(In the USA, average water consumption is 200-300 litres per person per day. source)

Water use also impacts global warming, as stated in a research report from the Energy Savings Trust:

• Water use contributes to 6% of the UK’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.
• Most of those emissions (nearly 90%) come from water use in the home.

It’s easy to forget everything that goes in to getting water to the tap, and what happens with it after it goes down the drain.  As the Energy Savings Trust points out, all these processes require energy, and thus emit CO2:  water extraction from the environment, water treatment, getting it to the households, the use in the home (heating), collecting sewage, treating sewage and discharging back into the environment.

How do you conserve water?

Photo by Joe  Shlabotnik.