Is Your Household Using 120 Buckets of Water A Day?

With the mercury climbing to as high as 34 degrees in Hastings so far this summer we are using more and more water to wash, cool down and keep our gardens alive.

However, our water resource is precious so Hastings District Council’s environmental project Sus’d team is doing all it can to encourage people to think carefully about their water use.

Sus’d Ambassador Councillor Tania Kerr says the Bucket Campaign shows just how much the average Hastings person is using by stacking up buckets in the Hastings War Memorial Library.

“Did you know that the average person in Hastings uses eight buckets of water a day just flushing the toilet – that’s 68 litres of water literally down the toilet,” Cr Kerr says.

Council monitors daily water use and last Sunday (February 6) when the temperature was 31 degrees we used 42M litres in Hastings, Flaxmere and Havelock North alone.

“Compare that to the day we had heavy rain a few weeks ago (Sunday, January 23rd) we used just 30M litres. That’s 1.2M litres less – the equivalent to around 10 olympic-sized swimming pools. There is so much we can do to reduce the amount of water we waste,” she says.

To find out how you can make simple changes to reduce your water usage go to http://www.susd.org.nz/water and to track you areas water usage go to http://www.hastingsdc.govt.nz/water-use-monitor

Besides raising awareness, Sus’d is giving Hastings people the tools to reduce their water consumption by hosting a ‘Meet the Plumber’ talk at the Hastings library on Tuesday, February 15 at 6.30pm. Attendees can find out how to change a washer and about water saving products available.

Not only can you learn to stop a leaking tap yourself, Sus’d has also arranged for a plumber to come and fix your leaking tap one evening during the week starting Monday, 21 February for free. Just register your interest by emailing susd@hdc.govt.nz