25 Things YOU Can Do To Prevent Water Waste

9 Things you can do to save water in the bathroom

1. Check your toilets for leaks. Put a little food coloring in your toilet tank. If, without flushing, the color begins to appear in the bowl, you have a leak that should be repaired immediately
2. Stop using the toilet as an ashtray or wastebasket. Every time you flush a cigarette butt, facial tissue, or other small bit of trash, you waste five to seven gallons of water
3. Put plastic bottles in your toilet tank. To cut down on water waste, put an inch or two of sand or pebbles inside each of two plastic bottles to weigh them down. Fill them with water and put them in your toilet tank, safely away from operating mechanisms. In an average home, the bottles may displace and save ten or more gallons of water a day.
4. Take shorter showers. Long, hot showers can waste five to ten gallons every unneeded minute. Limit your showers to the time it takes to soap up, wash down, and rinse off.
5. Install water-saving shower heads or flow restrictors. Your local hardware or plumbing supply store stocks inexpensive water-saving shower heads or restrictors that are easy to install.
6. Take baths. A bath in a partially filled tub uses less water than all but the shortest showers.
7. Turn off the water after you wet your toothbrush. There is no need to keep water pouring down the drain. Just wet your brush and fill a glass for mouth rinsing.
8. Rinse your razor in the sink. Fill the bottom of the sink with a few inches of warm water. This will rinse your blade just as well as running water, and is far less wasteful.
9. Check faucets and pipes for leaks. Even the smallest drip from a worn washer can waste 20 or more gallons a day. Larger leaks can waste hundreds.

6 Things you can do to save water in the kitchen and laundry

1. Use your automatic dishwasher only for full loads.
2. Use your automatic washing machine only for full loads.
3. If you wash dishes by hand, don’t leave the water running for rinsing. If you have two sinks, fill one with soapy water and one with rinse water. If you have only one sink, gather washed dishes in a dish rack and rinse them with a spray device or a panful of hot water.
4. Don’t let the faucet run while you clean vegetables. Just rinse them in a stoppered sink or a pan of clean water.
5. Keep a bottle of drinking water in the refrigerator. Running tap water to cool it off for drinking water is wasteful.
6. Check faucets and pipes for leaks. Leaks waste water 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and often can be repaired with only an inexpensive washer.

10 Things you can do to save water outside

1. Water your lawn only when it needs it. A good way to see if your lawn needs watering is to step on the grass. If it springs back up when you move, it doesn’t need water. If it stays flat, fetch the sprinkler.
2. Deep-soak your lawn. When you do water, do it long enough for the moisture to soak down to the roots where it will do the most good. A light sprinkling can evaporate quickly and tends to encourage shallow root systems.
3. Water during the cool parts of the day. Early morning generally is better than dusk since it helps prevent growth of fungus.
4. Don’t water the gutter. Position your sprinklers so water lands on the lawn or garden, not on paves areas. Also avoid watering on windy days.
5. Plant drought-resistant trees and plants. Many beautiful trees and plants thrive with far less watering than other species.
6. Put a layer of mulch around trees and plants. Mulch will slow evaporation of moisture and discourage weed growth, too.
7. Use a broom, not a hose, to clean driveways and sidewalks.
8. Don’t’ run the hose while washing your car. Clean the car with a pail of soapy water. Use the hose just to rinse it off.
9. Tell your children not to play with the hose and sprinklers.
10. Check for leaks in pipes, hoses, faucets, and couplings. Leaks outside the house may not seem as bad since they’re not as visible. But they can be just as wasteful as leaks inside. Check frequently and keep them drip-free.

Water Facts

• Water is made up of two elements, hydrogen and oxygen. Its chemical formula is H2O
• Each molecule of water is made up of two hydrogen atoms bonded to a single oxygen atom.
• The existence of water is essential for life on Earth.
• Water has three different states: liquid, solid, and gas
• The word water usually refers to water in its liquid state. The solid state of water is known as ice while the gas state of water is known as steam or water vapor.
• Water covers around 70% of the Earth’s surface.
• The three largest oceans on Earth are the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean.
• Found in the Pacific Ocean, the Mariana Trench is the deepest known point in the world’s oceans.
• Ocean tides are caused by the rotation of the Earth and the gravitational pull of the Moon and Sun acting on ocean water.
• Water from a sea or ocean is known as seawater. On average, every kilogram of seawater contains around 35 grams of dissolved salt.
• The freezing point of water lowers as the amount of salt dissolved in at increases. With average levels of salt, seawater freezes at -2 degrees Celsius.
• The longest river in the world is the Nile River. It reaches 6650 kilometers in length (4132 miles)
• The second longest river in the world is the Amazon River. It reaches 6400 kilometers (4000 miles in length).
• The longest river in the USA is the Missouri River. At around2,340 miles in length it is slightly longer than the Mississippi River. The two combine to form the longest river system in North America.
• Water makes a good solvent with many sugar, salts, and acids easily dissolving in it. On the other hand oils and fats don’t mix well with water.
• The water cycle involves water evaporating (turning into a gas), rising to the sky, cooling and condensing into tiny drips of water or ice crystals that we see as clouds, falling back to Earth as rain, snow, or hail before evaporating again and continuing the cycle.
• Water in the form of ice is found at the polar ice caps of the planet Mars, some scientists have also suggested the possibility of liquid water on the red planet.
• Pure water has no smell and no taste, it also has a pH level around 7.
• While most people know that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius, this is at the normal conditions of sea level. The boiling point of water actually changes relative to the barometric pressure. For example, water boils at just 68 degrees Celsius on the top of Mount Everest while water deep in the ocean near geothermal vents can remain in liquid form at temperatures much higher than 100 degrees Celsius.
• Water expands as it cools from 4 degrees Celsius to 0 degrees Celsius. In freezing conditions, water has been known to burst water pipes as it freezes to ice.
• Water can move up narrow tubes against the force of gravity in what is known as capillary action.
• Most people around the world have access to clean drinking water but it is a major problem in poorer areas of the world. Water pollution and low quality water can lead to dangerous bacteria, disease, and viruses such as E coli and Cryptosporidium.
• Drinking water is needed for humans to avoid dehydration, the amount you need each day depends on the temperature, how much activity you are involved in and other factors.
• An important use for water is in agricultural irrigation, this is when water is artificially added to soil in order to assist the growth of crops.
• Water is used frequently by firefighters to extinguish fires. Helicopters sometimes drip large amount of water on wildfires and bushfires to stop fires spreading and limit the damage they can cause.
• The water industry helps deliver water to home in various cities and countries around the world . This can involve services such as purification, sewage treatment, filtering, distillation, and plumbing.
• Electricity can be created from hydropower, a process that uses water to drive water turbines connected to generators. There are many hydroelectric power stations around the world.
• Water also plays a role in cooking. Steaming and boiling food are well known cooking methods. You may have notices this last time you made pasta or noodles.
• Water is also used for fun. Water sports are a very popular recreational activity and include things like swimming, surfing, and waterskiing. Ice and snow is also used in ice skating, ice hockey, skiing, and snowboarding.