Water Conservation
This page provides some useful water saving tips for use around the home and a link to our detailed water conservation guide.
In the Far North District we enjoy long, hot summers, often with little rainfall, but always with a lot of visitors to the District. This puts pressure on our water supplies.
The council has produced a Water Conservation Guide to provide you with some tips and ideas on how you can help to use water wisely and reduce consumption.
Download Water Conservation Guide (PDF)
In the bathroom
- Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth or shaving.
- Use less water in the bath and take shorter showers. A bath can use up to 80 litres of water, while a shower uses less than half that.
- Install a water-saving shower head. These are stocked by plumbing suppliers and some hardware stores, and can halve the amount of water you use in the shower.
- Install dual flush toilet cisterns or put a weight (like a half-full lemonade bottle or half a brick) in the cistern to reduce the quantity of water that flushes.
- Flush less often.
In the laundry
- Wait until you have a full load or make sure you set the machine for smaller loads. A full washing machine uses about 150 litres of water for one cycle.
In the kitchen
- Store a bottle of drinking water in the fridge to help avoid running more water than you need for a glass of water.
- Put the plug in the sink when washing vegetables and avoid running the tap.
- Use the dishwasher for full loads only. Each load uses 60 litres of water.
- Look for the AAA Water Conservation rating when purchasing new appliances.
Stop those leaks!
- Leaks waste water 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A dripping tap can waste up to 3600 litres a year – that’s more than a full bath a week.
- Check taps and pipes for leaks. If you have a header tank in your house make sure the plumbing is kept in good repair. Don’t let the header tank overflow.
- Check your toilet flushing system and the overflow pipe on the outside wall for leaks.
- Check your hot water cylinder overflow pipe (on the roof.) If the ajax valve isn’t working properly, the cylinder will leak hot water – a waste of both water and electricity.
In the garden
- A hose running at full volume uses 2000 litres of water per hour. This would fill 28 baths to the top.
- Avoid using sprinklers. Soak your garden once every few days rather than giving it a quick drink every night. Light watering makes the plants shallow rooted, and most of the water is wasted through evaporation. Soaking the ground every few days encourages the roots to go deeper into the soil to seek out moisture.
- In drought prone areas or areas where water restrictions are common, grow plants that flourish in dry conditions. Deep rooting plants are better able to survive drought.
- Water the ground, not the leaves of trees and shrubs. Watering leaves just increases water loss through evaporation, and on sunny days may damage them.
- Avoid watering in the heat of the day or in windy weather, when water will evaporate rather than soak into the ground where it is needed.
- Mulch your garden with grass clippings or compost. Mulching can prevent up to 70% of water loss through evaporation. The best mulch is well rotted compost which will also improve the soil’s ability to hold moisture.
- Grey water from baths, showers, sinks and washing machines can be used for watering the garden. This water also contains nutrients that are beneficial to the garden.
- Provide shade in the garden as it reduces the evaporation of water. Don’t let the children play with the hose. They can waste 2000 litres of water every hour.
Other tips
- Leave the car dusty
- Sweep the path rather than hosing it
- Delay house washing etc
Page created/updated: 25 January 2010 at 11:07 am
