water

Water is very precious in many countries (including South Africa) and tourists tend to use far more than local people. Maintain the water saving behaviour that you employ at home whilst you are on holiday – turn off dripping taps, take short showers rather than long baths, and hang your towels up after use so that your hotel doesn’t have to wash them every day. If your hotel doesn’t have a linen reuse program, let the housekeeping department know you are willing to reuse your sheets and towels for a few days to reduce water, energy, and detergent use.

South Africa is regarded as a semi-arid country. We have an average of 450mm of rain per year and a high rate of evaporation. Conserving water is the responsibility of all in South Africa – every drop counts.

A dripping tap can waste between 30 to 60 litres of water every day. If your water bill seems particularly high, check your home for leaks. Taps, showerheads and geyser overfow pipes may be dripping. An unnatural green patch in the garden could indicate a leak in one of your underground pipes. This can also be a major source of water loss.

If you fnd an underground leak, call a plumber to repair it. If pipes need to be replaced, ask for a durable, corrosion- resistant pipe.

An average bath uses 160 liters of water while a fve-minute shower typically uses only 60 litres. If you do take a bath, then share the water with your partner and let children bath together.

To cut down further on the water used for showering, install a low-fow showerhead. Fitting a low-fow showerhead is an inexpensive exercise, and reduces shower water use by up to 75%. Some even have a‘shower off’button to conserve water while you lather up.

If you do have the occasional bath instead of showering, keep a bucket in your bathroom, and use it to collect your used bathwater.You can then toss into the garden, or transfer to a watering can and use to water pot plants around the house.

Taking a bath could typically use between 80 and 160 litres of water – depending on what level you fll it to. If you do prefer bathing to showering, try a compromise by running it to a lower level rather than completely full. If you are getting a bath installed, ask for a narrower and shorter bath – a smaller volume means it will need less water to fll.

These inexpensive devices reduce the fow in kitchen taps by around 50–75%, while still providing suffcient water for washing-up purposes.

Avoid rinsing vegetables under running water: Use a bowl and then use the water in the garden, or to water your pot plants and window boxes.

If your toilet cistern is accessible, you can reduce the amount of water used in one fush by installing a displacement container (try a 2-litre bottle flled with water and add a little sand as ballast). This can save you 20% of your total water consumption with no reduction in convenience.You can also save water by installing a dual-fush or multi-fush device on your toilet.

Do not flush plastics, chemicals and medicines into the sewage system as any leak anywhere in the piping system will result in these chemicals fltering into and polluting our groundwater supplies – which reduces the overall amount of water available for human use.