Since the 1950s water consumption has almost tripled to 150 litres of water, per person per day. That is a growth of around 1% per annum since 1930 and this level of consumption is clearly not sustainable in the long-term.

The growth in our consumption can be attributed to our increasing reliance of washing machines, dishwashers, an increase in people gardening as a leisure activity, washing cars and more people being able to take baths and power showers.

You may ask why water saving is important as the UK generally has a climate where we can expect wet summers and even wetter winters. However, despite this ‘wet climate’ some parts of the UK are experiencing water shortages (as typified by the severe drought that occurred in 2005/06) and areas such as the South East of England actually already has less water available per person than the Sudan and Syria!

As climate change takes hold scientists have predicted that the droughts that occurred in 2005/06 will happen once every three years – if we continue to waste water in the way that we currently do then some areas of the UK will find it extremely difficult to cope with water shortages in the future. We all need to adopt a more sustainable approach to water consumption otherwise our water resources will be under a lot strain to cope with the growing demand.