I’ve just been reading that 20% of clean water that enters your house goes down the toilet. Then I read this figure could in fact be up to 50%. Wow! That’s a lot of precious water going to waste. So what can we do about it?
I know there are these devices that you add to the cistern that reduce the amount of water being used per flush – anyone have any experience of them, can you recommend a make? But I was also thinking (rather simplistically) that if I could run a pipe from my roof guttering into a tank in my loft, then somehow (!) that stored water could be used first by the cistern and the regular supply as a backup. Then I got a headache.
A little Googling came up with this from the Environment Agency. Obviously the main thing that jumps out at you here is the price tag – an estimated minimum of £2500 – ouch. Even if you had a water meter fitted and saved on costs that way I would guess you’d be looking at years to recoup the money.
So how about the government dipping into their pocket and paying for us all to have one, or at least a grant towards the cost? OK, probably not going to happen, but perhaps insisting that for instance all new-build houses have such a system would be a start.