Forget collecting used water in buckets. Start reducing your water footprint the fuss-free way with these five easy steps from PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency!
It’s time to say to say goodbye to water conservation as you know it.
If you’ve been practicing outdated water-saving methods, like recycling mop water and setting aside buckets of laundry water for future use, it’s time to make the switch to ‘W-A-T-E-R’, a handy mnemonic list of five everyday habits that PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency wants everyone to adopt!
Here’s what ‘W-A-T-E-R' stands for:
(W)ASH clothes on full load
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Doing your laundry on a full load is probably the easiest water-saving practice that you can adopt. Live with a family? Set laundry sessions on days when it’s possible to pool together a basket’s worth of used clothing so that your wash cycles are always maximised.
Otherwise, if you’re familiar enough with your washing machine’s settings, selecting the right cycle for your laundry load will yield the same results too.
(A)LWAYS use half-flush when possible
Saying that you can do your part for water conservation with just a single push of a button is no exaggeration. Compared to a regular full flush, the half-flush function of a dual-flush toilet uses up to 70% less water – so if your load (we aren’t referring to the laundry kind) isn’t large, go for the more water efficient option.
(T)URN off shower when soaping
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Much like pushing the right flush button, it doesn’t take much effort to turn off the tap or shower while you’re soaping up. But if you’d like to save even more water, you can also try cutting down on the amount of time that you spend bathing. Otherwise, if you intend to have a personal shower concert, getting an ultra-low-flow showerhead will do the trick.
(E)NSURE tap is off when brushing teeth
Let’s do some quick math: assuming that the tap you have at home releases 4 litres of water per minute (PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency's standard flow rate for a water-efficient basin tap) and you take five minutes brushing your teeth with the tap on, that would be 20 litres of water used every day. Do that for a year, and you’d have wasted enough water (7,300 litres) to fill up 24 average-sized bathtubs.
Now that you’ve seen the numbers, need we say more?
(R)INSE vegetables in container
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Whether it’s a head of broccoli or a bag of beansprouts, washing your greens in a container is one way that you can do your part.
Having a basin, even a small one, will prevent any excess water from quite literally going down the drain – and if anything, it’s going to be more hassle-free than re-using dirty mop water.
Be rewarded when you pledge for W-A-T-E-R!
Come say hi at any water conservation roadshows around the island! You can redeem a free gift by making a commitment to saving water or by showing a drop in your latest water bill.
Check out the water conservation roadshow schedule at: MakeEveryDropCount.sg/roadshows/
