water going down the drain along with your money by monabona on deviantart
Since it is National Water Week, we thought we would give you some tips on how to save water around your home. These ideas can be done around your existing home and do not require you to install new systems. To see how you can change your home to be more Eco friendly using grey water systems, and other devices that could save water, see green your water.

Here are some simple tips, that with a change in mindset, could save you a lot of wasted water, and a lot on your water bill, and lets face it who doesn't want to save money?

1. Shower instead of bathing. It is far better to shower than to run a bath. A bath uses about 200 liters of water while a shower cuts down on water usage by 66%.

2. Only do the laundry when you have a full load,doing lots of smaller loads, uses more water.

3. Re use water from bathing or washing clothes to water the garden. However, you should use clean water for water vegetable and herbs that you are going to eat.

4. Shorten your shower by one minute. One person taking a five minute shower every day will use more than 20 000 liters of water per year.

5. Fill a kettle only with the amount of water that you need. It will help to cut down on water and electricity bills.

6. Choose one glass or coffee mug that is yours for the day and re use it as having many mugs and glasses creates a lot more washing up, which uses more water.

7. Ditch the dishwasher and wash dishes by hand. A dishwasher uses 40- 60 liters of water per wash. Rinse the dishes off in a sink partially filled with water instead of running water.

8. Place a bucket in the shower to catch water and use to water the garden.

9. Turn off the shower while you lather up with soap, and turn it on again when you want to rinse off.

10. Do not leave sprinklers or hoses unattended. A garden hose can pour out more than 2 000 liters within a few hours.

11. Grow your lawn a little longer, this shades the ground and reduces water loss through evaporation. You can also decrease the size of your lawn and mulch areas with bark or gravel.

12. If you have a pool, install a pool cover. This is important in summer as well as winter as it prevents evaporation. A pool can loose up to a centimetre of water every day in summer.

13. Check your outside taps for leaks. We often notice leaks and drips when they are inside, but not when they are outside.

14. Check for underground leaks. Make sure all taps are closed and the geyser full. Wait half an hour. Then go and look at your water meter, usually outside your property. Check to see if water is flowing through the system. Record what the figure is. Do not use water for an hour and go and check the figure again. If there has been a change you may have an underground leak and it should be reported.

Need more tips?
Check out these 100 ways to conserve water by Water: use it wisely