£75m Water Efficiency Campaign makes public launch

(by Karma Loveday)

A PR24-funded £75m national Water Efficiency Campaign went live across England and Wales last week.

‘Let’s Save Water’ seeks to make a measurable contribution to a 5% reduction in water consumption within ten years, and more broadly to change how society thinks about water.

The campaign’s core message in England is that “we’re using water faster than nature replaces it” while in Wales, it is that climate change is making supplies less predictable.

The campaign aims to: raise awareness with homes and businesses of water scarcity; improve understanding of what the water sector is doing to address this through fixing leaks and investing in new supplies as well as what individuals can do to help; and to promote small behaviour changes in water use habits and fit-and-forget choices. There is a target for everyone to cut their daily use by 28 litres, from the current average daily use of around 140 litres.

Conscious of low public trust in the sector, the campaign – which is funded by customers, organised by Ofwat and delivered as a sector-wide collaboration – has chosen to present its water saving messages through diffuse voices, including scientists, ecologists and celebrities as well as sectoral specialists.

Some initial reaction has been critical. For instance, campaigner River Action welcomed the effort to help people use less, but said: “Let's be clear: the public cannot be expected to fix a crisis they didn't create. Every day, water companies lose more than 3 billion litres of clean drinking water through leaking pipes. Since privatisation, they've paid out billions to shareholders while failing to invest in the infrastructure our water system desperately needs. And despite growing water shortages, no new reservoirs have been built by water companies in England for 30 years. We're being asked to take shorter showers while water companies waste billions of litres and continue to pollute our rivers. It's time they got their own house in order. We need a fully funded national freshwater emergency plan that fixes leaks, restores rivers, invests in resilient infrastructure, and holds polluters to account. Saving water is everyone's responsibility. Fixing the system is theirs.”