Caring for the Catchment : What you can do

Why be water efficient
Water is a valuable and precious resource. A lot of water is wasted because so many people give little thought as to where water comes from and where it goes after they have used it. Less than 1% of the world’s fresh water is available for human use.

When you consider that South Australia’s water treatment plants receive more than 90 billion litres of water each year you can see that much of our precious recourse is quite literally going down the drain!

How much water do we use and where is it used?

The average household in metropolitan Adelaide will use approximately 1200L of water per day.

For an active adult only about 2 litres of water per day is required to sustain life, therefore much of the water we use goes on personal hygiene and outdoor activities. For an average household 50% of the water used is inside the house.

The average tap flows at a rate of 15-30 litres per minute, depending on how far it is turned on. Based on this figure, it is not surprising that the amount of water we use can be quite high.

Bathroom

• Brushing your teeth 5 litres /minute
• Washing hands 5 litres /minute
• ‘Old Style’ Showerhead 20 litres /minute
• Shaving 8 litres /minute
• Bath (1/2 to 3/4 full) 150 litres each time
• Drips (slow leak) 22 litres /day
• Toilet (old single flush) 11 litres /flush

Laundry

• Washing machine 40-200 litres/load

Kitchen

• Dishwasher 20-35 litres of water/wash
• Dishwashing by hand 18 litres
• House design and construction

Some simple action your can take to save water around the home
In addition to simply buying appliances that reduce water usage, there are many simple actions that you can take around your new home once you have moved in that will save water.

In the Bathroom

• Spend less time in the shower. Reducing your shower from 8 minutes to 4 minutes and switching to a water saving shower head can save you around 168,000L per year.
• Brushing your teeth. When brushing your teeth, do not leave the tap running. By wetting the brush under the tap and filling a glass of water for rinsing you can save 36,000 litres of water per year.
• Rinsing your shaver. Filling the hand basin with a small amount of water is sufficient for rinsing your razors, this reduces the amount of water used by leaving the tap running.

In the Laundry

• Washing machines. Make sure the washing machine load adjustment is right for the load. If there is no load adjustment, wait until you have enough clothes for a full load. A front loader uses 80L of water per use. Reducing the amount of times you wash per week from 5 to 3 loads you could save around 9,000 litres per year.

In the Kitchen

• Rinsing. While carrying out tasks such as rinsing dishes, washing fruit and vegetables or washing your hands do not leave the tap running. If you wash your fruit and vegetables in a kitchen sink half filled with water (approximately 9L) you could save approximately 35-40L of water as compared to rinsing them under the tap for 3-5 minutes.
• Dishwasher. Do not run the automatic dishwasher until there is a full load. Since a dishwasher uses approximately 35 litres of water per load, this can add up to a substantial saving per year.
• Bottles of water. Instead of running the tap until the water is cool enough to drink, keep bottles of drinking water in the fridge.

Check for leaks

• A dripping tap or toilet wastes water and money. An easy way to assess if there are any leaks in your house is by your water meter. Before going to bed turn all of the taps off and take a water reading. Check the meter reading the next morning and if there is a change and no-one used any water during the night you may have a leaking pipe, tap or toilet cistern.
• A continuously running toilet can waste 16,000 litres of water per year. To check for leaks in your toilet put some food colouring in your cistern. If without flushing the colouring appears in the bowl, the cistern should be repaired.

Washing the Car

• A bucket of water and sponge is sufficient for washing the car. Only use the hose for rinsing and turn it off between rinses. Wash your car on the lawn. This prevents the wastewater entering the stormwater system and has the added benefit of watering your lawn.

NOTE:
While every effort has been made by the Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges NRM Board to ensure the accuracy of the information provided in this guide, no guarantee is given, nor responsibility taken, by the Board for errors or omissions. The Board does not accept responsibility in respect of any information or advice given in relation to or as a consequence of anything contained here.