        |
Water Use
A typical household in the UK can easily use a ton of water a day, with 90% ending up in the sewers. This demand can increase sharply in the summer with garden watering, causing problems in the distribution network.
Most people live in the south-east, and this is the area of maximum population growth. Unfortunately, most of the rain falls in the north-west and Wales! As Yorkshire Water found out a few years ago, it is not feasible to move the quantities of water required by road, especially as the final selling price of water to the consumer is around 80-120p/ton.
As water has traditionally been either cheap or unmetered, there has been little pressure to reduce consumption, either in the home or in industry. However, we are now reaching the stage where development will be restricted by the availability of a secure supply of drinking water.
90% of the water supplied isn't for drinking at all. The biggest single use is for flushing WCs. This can be reduced either by using recycled water (which isn't as straightforward as it may seem), rainwater or reducing the amount required for a flush.
Sticking a brick in the cistern may appear to help, but unless the WC was designed from the outset to operate with that volume of water, the main result will be several attempts at flushing away your misdemeanours. This is tokenism, not conservation.
Treating water to EU standards of pesticides and nitrates, delivering at the correct pressure and ensuring there is no risk of contamination, as the water companies do, is pointless if it is then used to water the petunias. Stored rainwater is a better source and reduces the impact on the water supply system.
Both homes and industry can, and should, reduce the amount of water used. This will also reduce the impact of unnecessary wastewater, and the energy used in pumping the whole lot around. Routing rainwater through a storage tank or porous pavement can both provide a source of non-potable water and reduce the impact of the development on flooding downstream.
 |
 |
