Water on tap

If we keep taking water out of the catchment faster than it comes in, we'll run out -- just as if we kept taking books from a library without returning them, pretty soon we'd run out of books.

Sydney's average daily water consumption is 1610 megalitres - enough to fill the Olympic Stadium to the top of its highest stand 100 times over. The record was set during summer 1990 when 3047 megalitres were used.

The total storage available in Sydney's reservoirs is almost 2.5 million megalitres - enough for four years without rain. Our population is growing and each person uses more water every year, meaning water conservation is increasingly important.

This is how we use water at home:

  • Bath (3%)
  • Basin (3%)
  • Kitchen (10%)
  • Laundry (16%)
  • Shower (20%)
  • Toilet (23%)
  • Outdoors (25%)

Hold an empty 1-litre milk carton under a running tap. Time how long it takes to fill. Compare this with the time the tap is running when you wash your hands, brush your teeth or have a shower. Calculate how many litres of water used if you run the tap while doing these activities. Keep this in mind next time you turn on the tap.

Save water by having quick showers, turning off the tap when cleaning your teeth and using the half-flush button on your toilet. In the kitchen, use a plug when washing food or dishes in the sink and don't use the dishwasher until it's full. In the garden, only water the garden roots and do that in the morning and evening instead of the heat of the day. Make sure taps aren't left dripping and never turn the tap on too far.