Be smarter with your water

Whilst Northern Ireland has a reasonable amount of rainfall, we still need our customers to be ‘water wise’ and realise the importance of conserving water; especially for businesses where it could reduce the cost of their bill.

Maynard Cousley, Water Supply Manager at NI Water: “NI Water continually monitors levels in reservoirs and takes steps to maximise water storage. However, although we have sufficient water, we shouldn’t waste it – we all need to be smarter with our water!

“Taking action now to reduce how much water we all use will help us all in the future.”

Examples of how you can use water more wisely include:

· Using watering cans around the garden instead of hosepipes and sprinklers;

· Using buckets to wash the car instead of a hosepipe;

· Not leaving taps running longer than necessary, for example when brushing teeth or washing vegetables;

· When using the dishwasher and washing machine, make sure it is a full load;

· Only filling the kettle as much as necessary; and

· Mend leaking taps - taps that drip once a second, result in the loss of 33 litres of water a day.

If you would like to assess your own water usage, please fill out NI Water’s Home Water Audit by logging onto http://www.niwater.com/informationleaflets.asp and click on the leaflet ‘Home Water Audit’.

NI Water’s water efficiency pages and ‘Using Water Wisely’ video can be found by logging on to http://www.niwater.com/waterefficiency.asp