The UK is the dried it has been for 50 years, in fact experts estimate that the average person is using 146 litres every day!  By saving water you can also save energy, money and help protect our environment.  

Here are some ideas: 

In YOUR HOME

• Shower for four minutes - By keeping your showers to four minutes, a household of four could save £115 a year on their energy bills and a further £100 on their water bill if on a water meter.
• Replace your showerhead - With an aerated showerhead, a family of four could save £55 off their gas bills annually and a further £45 off their water bills if on a water meter.
• Brushing your teeth - Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth. A running tap wastes approximately six litres a minute, so when each person runs the tap while washing their teeth for two minutes, that's 24 litres a day!
• Eco-Settings - On your washing machine or dishwasher the eco mode uses less water and saves energy with a lower temperature. Setting your washing machine to 30 degrees uses 57% less electricity, saves £14 a year and 11kg of carbon
• DIY - such as fixing dripping taps, they can waste enough water in a year to fill a child’s paddling pool every week of the summer

In YOUR GARDEN

• Morning Drink - The morning is the best time for watering because that’s when your plants and soil are ready to take in water.
• Drought Athletes - Keeping your plants really well watered all of the time just encourages them to need more water. Reduce the amount of water you use, without causing your plants to wilt, and you’ll train them to be drought athletes.
• Protect from Heat - You can put up a sunshade over your plants, move containers into a shadier spot, push containers together so they shade each other slightly, or throw a light fabric over them.
• Make your own compost - Used as mulch, compost helps soil retain more moisture by shading and cooling the roots, and helping the rain get in.
• Big Plants - Trees, shrubs and hedges cool the garden and are the least likely to need watering themselves.
• Water Butts - Water butts usually store about 200 litres of water. As well as being better for watering your plants, using rainwater in the garden reduces the amount of treated water you use. The average roof collects 85,000 litres of rain a year, enough to fill a water butt 450 times!
• Watering cans - A hose can use enough water to fill twelve baths every hour! So use a watering can when you can. Garden sprinklers and hosepipes left running can use between 500 and 1,000 litres of water an hour.
• Don't water your lawn - Wait for the rain to water your lawn. It’s ok to let your grass go brown during dry spells – it will bounce back as soon as it rains again.
• Make an Olla - A terracotta olla (spanish for pot) is an ancient way of storing water in the soil for plants to absorb.