Water Facts...

How much water?

The average Briton drinks 2 to 5 litres of water a day.  We use another 150 litres every day for cooking, cleaning, washing and flushing.  That’s up 70% from 30 years ago. (OFWAT) 

63% of the water used by Britons around the home is attributable to the bathroom. (Ipsos Mori 2008)

Consumers under-estimate the amount of water they use.  3 in 10 households think they use about 50 litres per day, per household.  In reality it is a colossal 150 litres of water per head used every day.  (Ipsos Mori 2008)

WHO’s recommendation for average domestic water consumption is 50 litres per day. (World Health Organisation)

Spain, Italy and France all have more water per head that the UK.  Sudan has more water per head that the southeast of England. (Environment Agency)

How much energy?­

Up to 3% of the UK’s electricity is used to process and deliver 16 billion litres of water into people’s home each day – pumping and treating. (Water UK)

In addition to the 1% contribution of the water industry, domestic hot water accounts for 5% (35 million tonnes) of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions. (Waterwise)

The average household bill in 2008-09 for water and sewerage is £330. This is an increase in real terms of 44% since 1989. (OFWAT)

A litre of tap water costs 0.22p when you include sewerage treatment costs. (OFWAT)

The average 80L bath costs 50p (water & heating); each gravity fed shower costs 39p*, and a power shower costs 70p*. By reducing from 7 to 4 minutes using a ShowerBoB shower timer, you can cut costs of your showers to 22p and 40p respectively.

That simple step saves you 17p (gravity-fed showers) and 30p (power showers) every time you have a wash! (Essex & Suffolk Water).

Britons spend more time in the shower than any of their European neighbours. Around 15% stand there for more than 11 minutes each day, while 3% admit to showering for more than 20 minutes.

In other countries, most people shower for between two and five minutes, according to a recent Ispos Mori poll for the Royal Society of Chemistry.