Five top tips to cut your water use as the prospect looms of the UK's overall demand for water outstripping supply in or around 2045

The Indie's Green Watch columnist Louise Tennekoon writes about environmental matters from a Bishop's Stortford perspective...

A few weeks ago, I had a leaflet through my door from Affinity Water, urging me to join its Save our Streams campaign. This made me curious about where our water comes from, how much of it we are using – and wasting – and what we can do about it.

Some 70% of the water that flows out of UK taps comes from rivers and streams.

Our local river, the River Stort, is a chalk stream, one of only 200 in the world. These streams are fed from natural underground aquifers, where chalk forms the bedrock, and typically have beautifully clear waters with little sediment.

Rich in minerals and with a fairly constant year-round temperature, they provide an important habitat for vegetation and a multitude of creatures including mayflies, otters, kingfishers, water voles and trout.

Some 85% of all chalk streams are located in southern and eastern England. They are under increasing pressure from over-abstraction (as water companies pump the water out of the ground and into our homes), physical modifications such as weirs, the impact of invasive non-native species and climate change.

This mounting pressure has prompted Affinity Water to launch its campaign to save chalk streams in its catchment area.

The company, which supplies 3.6 million customers in a region that is already under severe water stress, is taking a three-pronged approach: reducing leaks from the network and the amount of water it takes from the environment; supporting consumers to reduce their water use at home; and working to restore rivers and enhance habitats.

There's no doubt that leakage from the water main network is a massive problem right across the country. In 2019-20, water companies in England and Wales lost 2,954 million litres of water from their mains pipes every single day – equivalent to 1,182 Olympic-sized swimming pools. That's a fifth of all the water taken from the environment. Worryingly, although all water companies say they are doing their utmost to prevent leaks, this total figure has hardly changed over the past five years.

Affinity Water reduced its leakage rate by 15% in the five years to March 2020, the largest reduction achieved by any UK water company.

Despite this progress, data published by regulator Ofwat and the Environment Agency shows that Affinity Water was the fourth worst performer out of 20 companies in 2020, losing 9.7 cubic metres of water per kilometre of mains pipe per day, against an average of 8.5 cubic metres.

A spokesperson told me: "This [15% reduction] has been a huge undertaking across our business and has had its challenges. We know there is more to do and we are focused on going further and faster and targeting a further 20% reduction up to 2025."

At the same time, Affinity aims to reduce the amount of water it takes from the environment by 78 million litres per day by 2025, having hit an interim target of 42 million litres per day in 2020. This will be achieved not only by cutting leaks but also by reducing demand, bringing in new supply options and by moving water around the network more efficiently.

Meanwhile, more than 120,000 Affinity Water customers have joined the SOS campaign. There's a pretty impressive array of support on offer at the campaign website saveourstreams.co.uk. Answer some basic questions about your family's water usage and you can then access free water-saving products (ranging from shower heads to leaky loo detection strips), a free 15-minute video call showing how to use the products and a free leak repair. They'll even plant a tree if you show up to the call. You'll also get some behaviour-based challenges which, when completed, earn coins for your school to fund further tree-planting.

The last piece of the puzzle is restoring rivers, improving flow and water quality and enhancing habitats. Although Affinity Water has a number of projects under way, there's no sign of the company doing anything on the River Stort.

However, work is being undertaken by the Environment Agency and Herts County Council, including removal of the weir at Grange Paddocks.

Weirs were historically used to maintain artificial water levels, to power mills and industry, but most have no modern purpose. Removing the weir will help to restore the flow of the river, improve the health of the gravel riverbed and allow fish to move upstream.

Conservation activities along the River Stort are led by the River Lea Catchment Partnership, managed by Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust. There are lots of ways to get involved with caring for the river, including helping to survey, monitor and remove invasive non-native species, monthly insect surveys to detect pollution events and helping out at riverside nature reserves.

The trust is currently looking for volunteers to set up an Outfall Safari programme to detect where household misconnections are polluting the river so they can be reported to Thames Water.

For more information on any of these activities or to become a member of the trust, please email Sarah Perry, living rivers officer, at sarah.perry@hmwt.org.

All of this short-term action is set against a longer-term backdrop of severe water stress, rising demand and falling supply.

The prospect looms of the UK's overall demand for water outstripping supply in or around 2045. So action by Affinity Water is welcome, but we need a lot more of it. And it makes sense for us to do what we can to reduce our water use too.

Here are five top tips to cut your water use:

1 Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth. Leave it running and you are wasting around 24 litres a day – more than is used in a dishwasher cycle.

2 Cut your shower time in half. We spend an average of 10 minutes in the shower, using up to twice as much water as a bath. According to Waterwise, Britons use around two billion litres of water showering every day. The optimum time for a shower is four minutes – check out the Waterwise shower playlist on Spotify and try keeping your shower to the length of your favourite track.

3 Use the eco settings on your dishwasher and washing machine to optimise water use and always make sure they are full before you turn them on.

4 Leftover drinking water after lunch? Don't tip it down the sink – give it to your plants.

5 Try some easy hacks to keep paddling pool water clean for as long as possible: drop in a tennis ball to absorb sun cream residue and use a washing-up bowl as a foot-washing station to keep the worst of the dirt out.