Use less, use it twice: Every household uses water for drinking, cooking, washing, flushing and gardens. Water conservation at home cuts how much water a city needs.
The points to remember
- Water conservation means using less water, or using the same water twice.
- At home it works through devices, reuse, rules and prices, and habits.
- It cuts demand, so a city's reservoirs and aquifers last longer in a drought.
- Building dams or desalination plants adds supply: that is not conservation.
- A fall in population is not a strategy: name what people or the city did.
Remember it as: Use less, use it twice, pay for what you use.
Real example: in 2017 and 2018 Cape Town, South Africa, came close to 'Day Zero' after three dry winters. Homes cut their use so much that the city's daily use fell from over 1,200 to 523 million litres, and the taps never ran dry.
Two answers that do not count: 'They built a desalination plant' adds supply; it does not save water. 'The population fell' is not something anyone did. Name a real action: meters, low-flush toilets, a hosepipe ban.
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The simplest savings come from the things in the house that use water. A dual-flush toilet or a low-flow shower head saves water every day without anyone having to remember.
Devices and fixes
- Low-flush or dual-flush toilets use far less water per flush.
- Low-flow shower heads and tap aerators mix air into the water.
- Water-efficient washing machines and dishwashers, chosen by their label.
- Fix leaking taps, pipes and toilets inside the home.
- Replace lawns with drought-tolerant plants; use public pools, not private ones.
- Habits: shorter showers, tap off while brushing. Count them as one point.
Uses a lot
- Older toilet: about 9 to 13 litres a flush
- A leaking tap or toilet, all day
- A green lawn in a dry summer
- A private swimming pool
Uses less
- Dual-flush toilet: about 4 or 6 litres
- A washer fixed in minutes
- Drought-tolerant plants and gravel
- A shared public pool
Real example: in Cape Town, people were asked to keep showers to two minutes and to flush the toilet only when needed, and many homes fitted low-flow shower heads.
One habit, one mark: Shorter showers, turning the tap off and showers instead of baths are all habits: together they count as one strategy. Fixing pipes counts only for pipes in the home, not the city's water mains.
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Not every use needs drinking-quality water. Flushing a toilet or watering a garden can use water that has been used once, or rain from the roof.
Grey water and rainwater
- Grey water is used water from showers, basins and washing machines, never toilets.
- Filtered grey water can flush toilets and water gardens, so less clean water is used.
- Rainwater harvesting: gutters lead rain from the roof into a tank or water butt.
- Rainwater can water gardens, wash cars and flush toilets instead of mains water.
- Limits: tanks cost money, need space, and fill only when it rains; neither is safe to drink.
Real example: during Cape Town's drought, many households collected shower water in buckets to flush toilets, and rainwater tanks sold out in the city's shops.
Say what the water replaces: 'Use grey water' is half an answer. Add the link: 'to flush toilets, so less clean mains water is used'.
People use less when water costs more or when the law limits it. A water meter turns every litre into money on the bill.
Rules and prices
- Metering: a meter measures each home's use, so people pay for what they use.
- Rising tariffs: the more you use, the higher the price per litre.
- Rationing or quotas: a legal limit on how much each person or home may use.
- Restrictions: bans on hosepipes, watering lawns, washing cars or filling pools.
- Campaigns teach people how to save water: say what they are told to do.
Remember it as: Measure it, price it, limit it, explain it.
Real example: from February 2018 Cape Town limited residents to 50 litres per person per day, banned watering gardens with mains water and charged very high prices for heavy use.
'Education' alone is not enough: Single words such as 'education', 'awareness', 'regulations' or 'lifestyle change' are too vague. Say what happens: 'a campaign teaches people to take shorter showers', 'a ban on hosepipes in summer'.
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Papers often give a graph of water use and ask for the percentage decrease. Use the formula first, then the numbers.
Reading water-use data
- Percentage change = (new value - old value) / old value x 100.
- Always divide by the old (first) value.
- A fall gives a minus sign: write it as 'a decrease of ...%'.
- Quote numbers with units when you describe a graph: '1,200 down to 523 million litres a day'.
- Compare the latest value with any target shown, and say how far there is still to go.
Check your answer: A decrease can never be more than 100%. If you get a bigger number, you divided by the new value.
Worked example: Percentage change = (523 - 1,200) / 1,200 x 100 = -56.4%.
So Cape Town's water use fell by about 56%: more than half.
How this comes up: Paper 1: a graph shows a city's water use falling. Outline two strategies that may have caused the fall [2].
Figure 1 shows the total daily water use of Cape Town, South Africa, before and during the drought of 2017 and 2018.
Outline two strategies that may have been used to reduce the city's water use.
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