Personal water targets floated to avert drought
PEOPLE should take showers instead of baths, the head of the Environment Agency has said, as he warned of the need for personal water targets.
Sir James Bevan also suggested that householders could help avoid water supply shortages by turning the tap off while brushing their teeth and ensuring the washing machine was full before starting a cycle.
The Environment Agency (EA) is warning that people need to use less water and companies must curb leaks, to prevent future shortages and damage to rivers and wildlife.
Many sources of water supplies are already overstretched and, with climate change and a growing population, much of England could see significant supply shortages by the 2050s – particularly in the South East.
The EA wants people to have a personal water target, and is urging the public to use water more wisely. Sir James said: “It’s the Government’s target, which the Government set in the 25-year environment plan, and there are a series of practical things that we can do to hit that target. For example, you can take a shower rather than a bath, you can turn off the tap while you brush your teeth, you can make sure you have a full load in your washing machine before you use it.”
Sir James told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: “A lot of this is about changing the way people think about water and the way they use it, so that we start thinking about water not just as something that happens automatically when we turn on the tap, but something that is a precious resource that we all have a responsibility to look after.”
According to Ofwat, the average person uses 140 litres per day. The EA declined to give a figure for how much people should cut their usage by. Conservation organisation Waterwise suggested 100 litres a day was feasible.
We must all take showers instead of baths, says Sir James Bevan, the head of the Environment Agency. That is to put things upside down. The water companies’ job is to catch enough water to let all who want baths have them. It has taken long enough to persuade people to take regular baths, and success is still not 100 per cent, as commuters know. Water is not like coal or wood. It does not break down into hydrogen and oxygen. It runs into the sea, and dear old Nature desalinates it by forming vapour clouds that drift over to rain upon the just and the unjust. Britain is not the Maghreb. If there’s worry about how much bathwater goes down the drain, what of the 660 million gallons a day leaking from water company pipes? A bath is the right of every British citizen. Pray draw us one, Sir James, every morning.