It’s World Water Day this month and with many parts of South Africa affected by drought, it’s a problem we should all be concerned about. We’ve put together some water-saving ideas to help everyone do their part in preserving our most precious resource. After all, water is life – save it!

Plug the leaks

The leaky tap that’s dripping away could be wasting up to 40,000 litres of water a year. That’s enough to fill a small swimming pool – every year! Repairing leaking taps and toilets, and replacing broken fittings is the quickest way to save water. Plugging those leaks also means that you’ll be saving money on your water bill every month

Keep water in mind

A tap left running uses about 20-30 litres of water per minute. If you leave the tap open for two minutes while you brush your teeth, and assuming you brush twice a day, you’re throwing away almost 2 500 litres of water a year! Turn off the tap when you brush your teeth, wash your face or shave to reduce your water usage.

Your mother was right, putting something into the toilet cistern to reduce the amount of water that it holds, will save water with every flush. It doesn’t have to be a brick, you could use a filled plastic bottle instead.

Timing is key

We’ve often heard that a shower uses less water than a bath but not if you stand in there for too long. A 10-minute shower uses 150- 200 litres of water, which is the same amount as filling a bath tub. Keeping your shower time to 5-minutes or less, and using a water-saving showerhead can reduce that amount to 32 litres. You’ll still be clean, we promise!

If you’re really serious about saving water, when you get in the shower, soap up then turn the water off while you wash. Turn the water back on for a 1-minute rinse when you’re done.

Spend a bit of cash

Installing an aerator on your tap or replacing your old taps with ones that have a built-in aerator reduces the water flow to 6-10 litres a minute without affecting water pressure. Think of it as an investment in our planet.

Water-saving showerheads save up to 50% versus a regular model, by restricting the amount of water that flows out of the rose. Your shower water travels through a narrow opening and is forced into a small turbulence chamber where it is broken up into millions of tiny droplets. Using less water in your shower also reduces the amount of electricity it takes to keep the water in your geyser hot, so you save twice!

Be creative

With a little thought about how you consume water in your home, you can find many ways to save or re-use water. Think about putting a bucket or a watering can in the shower, or kitchen sink to catch the cold water while you wait for it to get hot and use the collected water to nurture a veggie patch, or water your plant

Water is life. It sustains all life on our planet, so being mindful about how much we are using is in the interests of everyone in our families, communities and our world. Join us this World Water Day and make some changes to how you live your life, to save water.