A target for household water use of 110 litres per person per day in the UK’s 25-Year Environment Plan will only be met through a major education drive, it was stressed this week.
UWLA MD Yvonne Orgill says proposed government targets on water efficiency are meaningless without more education and promotion of the Unified Water Label.
She said: “Until we can educate consumers on how much water they use in the home, and give them a means to measure and make choices then these targets are meaningless and will never be met.
“If we want consumers to take on board the government targets we must promote the use of the Unified Water Label so consumers can understand the impact their choices make and we can help them to become more water savvy.
“For example a typical modern shower may be using 12 litres a minute, research shows that a typical showering time is 7 minutes, giving a total of 84 litres used by just the one shower. This is about 70% of the daily target, not leaving much for all the other washing/WC flushing that takes place on a typical day.
“If the industry comes together to provide more education and the consumer understands why water matters and what they can do, they could select a product that uses less. Choosing a shower that uses 10 litres a minute and spending less time in the shower, say 5 minutes, reduces that 84 litres to 50 litres, without any loss of performance from the product or experience of the shower.
“We are making progress, the Unified Water Label is currently used extensively by over 10,500 architects on new building projects and supported by a database of products across 14 categories – over 13,500 individual products at this time.”