Brits clueless about their water use

The “vast majority” of Britons have no idea how much water they use each day with nearly half of them believing they use one seventh of their actual consumption according to findings from a recent survey.

The water industry has launched of a campaign to improve public understanding of water consumption and called on the government to up its efforts to do the same.

The survey of nearly 2,200 adults by pollster Savanta ComRes revealed that 46% believe their household uses under 20 litres a day which is roughly equivalent to taking a two-minute shower). The true figure is closer to 142 litres per person per day which is the UK average use per person – compared with 121litres a day per person. Estimates of daily use by another third of those surveyed fell between 20 litres and 59 litres.

The misconception is most acute among 18-34-year-olds with 66% of them believing their household uses under 20 litres. However a quarter of over-65s gave the same estimate.

Following publication of the findings water companies have urged the government to “do more to embed water efficiency in our national psyche,” so that people understand the amount of water they use,

They have called on government to use the Environment Bill to introduce water efficiency measures, such as labels on washing machines and dishwashers to show how much water they use, and smarter building regulations to cut water waste.

Meanwhile Water UK and water efficiency campaigner, Waterwise, have, this summer, launched a joint initiative – the Water’s Worth Saving campaign earlier in the summer. The campaign, ‘builds on the existing awareness raising work of water companies, aims to educate consumers about the water they are using while offering simple hints and tips to help save this precious resource.’ Waterwise has reported that the campaign has reached 13 million individuals with more than 412,000 visits to its website.

The Welsh government has concluded that water meters we’re “potentially be an effective way of encouraging people to use less water after finding that 82% of respondents to a survey who had a water meter said it encouraged them to use water more carefully, And 79% of metered households were in favour of making water meters a requirement for all households.

The survey of 1,000 people over 16 conducted by the Welsh administration found that 30% of the people polled said they had a water meter while 64% responded they did not. Asked what might prevent them saving water s 43% of all respondent said they did everything they could do to save water with 20% saying they didn’t know what more they could do.