Ten ways that we can make sure the taps keep running

The average Abu Dhabi apartment dweller uses 180 to 190 litres of water every day. That is enough to fill half a bathtub. If we keep using at the current rate, there will be no natural fresh water left in Abu Dhabi within our lifetime.

Most of our household water comes from desalination plants, which run on natural gas, and are costly and harmful to the environment.

Here are 10 easy ways to do your part.

1

Take shorter showers A minute in the shower can use 17 litres of water. Set a timer or shut off the shower while lathering up. Every minute counts.

2

Eat like a vegetarian A vegetarian diet can cut your water-related food imprint by 36 per cent. It takes 9,000 litres of water to produce a pound of meat and 94 litres to produce a pound of wheat. Eat the occasional meatless meal or cut back on dairy to do your bit.

3

Slash your food waste In

Abu Dhabi, each person produces an average of 1.73 kilograms of food waste a day. Only buy what you will use and cook what you will eat.

4

Wash vegetables in a bowl instead of using a running tap For bonus points, try steaming them instead of boiling.

5

Buy less It takes 12,000 litres of water to make your smartphone and 20,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of cotton. That’s equal to a T-shirt and a pair of jeans.

6

Let your car get dusty

This may be the land of the shining SUV but consider this: the average hose uses 6 litres of water a second. A 10-minute car wash takes 378 litres of water.

7

Reuse your towel Do you need a fresh towel after every shower?

8

Launder well Washing one load of laundry uses far less water than two halfloads. Old washers can use up to 170 litres a load. Buying an efficient one could cut this down to 19 litres.

9

Throw rubbish in the bin

The toilet bowl is not your rubbish bin. Every flush uses 9 to 12 litres of water.

10

Cut out plastics You’ll not only stop adding to the mountain of plastics filling the earth, you’ll be saving a lot of water. It takes 5.6 litres of water to make a single plastic bottle. Those plastic bags? They add up too.

Bonus Invest ethically. Academic research from 2013 found that corporations control an estimated 5 per cent of the water the world uses annually. When corporations buy farmland they are often buying the rights to freshwater in poverty-stricken areas. When you buy and when you invest, think about what you are supporting.