UK Approaches Water Crisis: What Can We Do?

We are sorry to be the bearers of more troubling climate news. It was announced last week that the UK could see water shortages within the next 25 years.

The chief executive of the Environment Agency warned that the country is facing ‘jaws of death’ , which is the point where water demand from our rising population is larger than the falling supply resulting from climate change.

Okay, enough of the doom and gloom. There are tangible things we can do to help!

The Environment Agency estimates that each person uses 140 litres of water a day. We need to reduce this to 100 litres, which sounds tough, until you learn that almost a third of our use is lost to leaks or wastage.

So, how can we help? There are big structural changes required, such as more mega-reservoirs, and increased transfers to water-stressed areas. But on a small, personal scale, there are things we can do too.

Here are 5 things we at SC Towers will be doing from now on! (N.B. – lots of our tips are from The Eden Project. Thank you, Tim Smit  and Jonathan Ball!)

1. Turn off the tap when you brush your teeth.
2. Take shorter showers. We know we’ve been self-indulgent!
3. Fix a dripping tap. We were shocked to learn a dripping tap can waste 15 litres per day!
4. Chill water in the fridge. Placing a jug of water in the fridge saves you running the cold tap for a while!
5. Always use full loads in your washing machine and dishwasher. This one is straight forward, but we know we can be guilty of small, in between loads and washing to get *that* blouse clean for work.

What will you be doing this week? Let us know on Twitter! @Speakers_Corner Need advice from some of our top sustainability speakers ?

For further information or to book one of our speakers, call us on +44 (0)20 7607 7070  or email  info@speakerscorner.co.uk .

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