Reducing Water Wastage in the UK

Did you know that: The water on the planet is as old as the dinosaurs! The water on Earth continually gets recycled through the water cycle. It goes from a solid (ice), liquid (water) and a gas (vapour), and covers about 70% of the Earth’s surface.

Out of all the water on Earth only 1% of it is available for us to use and drink – the rest is locked up in oceans and ice caps.

Have a go at our Crossword, Wordsearch and maze and see if you can learn some things about saving water.

As well as learning about water efficiency you can also become a water saver yourself. Have a look at the water saving tips below and see if you can do any of them:

• When you brush your teeth, turn the tap off in between rinses. This can save as much as six litres of water a minute – which is about 24 litres of water a day – that’s 168 litres of water a week!

• Encourage your family to fill a plastic bottle with water and put it in the fridge. This way when you want a cold glass of water you can simply open the fridge rather than running the tap until the water runs cold.

• Encourage your family to put a water butt in the garden. This is a big barrel which catches the rainfall from the roof of your house when it rains. You can then help to water the garden using this water rather than a hosepipe. You can also clean cars and windows with this water.

• If you have plants in your house, why not use the water left over from your night time drink to feed them, rather than pouring your drink down the sink and then using more water to feed the plant.

• Keep an eye out for dripping taps and tell a grown up if you see any. A dripping tap can waste as much as 15 litres per day.

• Ask your family if you have a dual flush toilet or not. If you don’t have a dual flush encourage them to fill a one litre plastic bottle with water or rice, and then get an adult to pop it in the back of the toilet. This means that every time you flush the toilet you will be wasting that much less water! If you do already have one in the toilet ‘well done’! If you have a dual flush toilet – even better!

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