Water Saving Tips

Water saving tips

• Ensure all taps are fully closed – a dripping tap at 1 drip per second wastes up to 30 litres a day – that is equivalent to 10 000 litres a year.
• Replace tap washers regularly and fit tap aerators to restrict and spread the flow. This saves water yet feels like you are using the same amount of water.
• Ensure your plumbing system is regularly checked for leaks and engage a plumber when necessary.

• Water your garden before 09:00 or after 16:00 (or even later on hot summer days). Avoid watering during windy periods and only water your garden when necessary.
• Re-use your bath and sink water to water plants and lawns. Professional greywater recycling systems are also available for purchase.
• If you have an overflow pipe that drips into the garden, place a bucket beneath the drips and use the saved water to water pot plants.
• Mulching flowerbeds keeps down the weeds and holds moisture in the soil for longer.
• Use a mulching lawn mower that allows clippings to be finely cut and blown back into the lawn.
• Don’t mow lawns below 4 cm in length, as this reduces root depth and lawns are more likely to burn in summer.
• Use a trigger nozzle with automatic shut-off on your hose when you wash your car, and use short bursts of water – this can save up to 300 litres each time. Or, to save even more water wash your vehicle using a bucket of water.
• Use a trigger nozzle with automatic shut-off on your hose when you water your garden.
• Check and maintain your irrigation system regularly, to ensure no water is running to waste, or that paved areas are being watered.
• Adjust your irrigation system for the season and switch it off during rainy weather – even if it is borehole or wellpoint water.
• Watering the garden less frequently, but deeper (for longer) encourages a deeper root system, which results in stronger plants. This practice can make water-wise plants out of most established plants.
• Consider buying alternative solutions.

• Ensure washing machines or dishwashers have a full load before running them.
• Rinse glasses, cutlery and vegetables in a basin of water, rather than under a running tap, and reuse the water for pot plants or in the garden.
• Rinse water can be reused for the next cycle of washing up before being discarded.
• Keep a bottle of drinking water in the fridge so that you don’t run lukewarm water down the drain when waiting for it to cool.
• Run tap water into a bottle when waiting for it to heat up.
• Thaw frozen foods in the fridge, sunlight or microwave rather than placing them under running water.

• Close the tap when brushing your teeth. This saves up to 20 litres per month. Use a mug of water to rinse your toothbrush.
• Plug the sink when shaving rather than rinsing your razor under running water. This saves up to 45 litres per month.
• A half-filled bath uses about 113 litres, a 5-minute shower uses about 56 litres. Shower rather than bath, if you have to bath make it a shallow one or share it.
• Reuse bath water in your garden.
• Install a new water-saving toilet or put a clean, sealed plastic container filled with sand in the toilet cistern. This could save you up to 7 300 litres each year.
• A toilet leak can waste up to 30 litres an hour – check if your toilet is leaking by adding a few drops of food dye to the cistern. If the colour seeps into the bowl, you have a leak, which should be fixed as soon as possible.
• Install a water-saving shower head, take shorter showers, don’t run the water at full force and turn off the shower when soaping or shaving.

• Automatic flushing urinals are the ultimate water wasters. If they cannot be replaced immediately, turn off the water after hours and over weekends – schools doing this have saved up to R5 000 on their annual water bill.
• Flush valves should flush for just two to four seconds and urinals for six to eight seconds.
• Regular maintenance of toilet fittings will save unnecessarily flushed water.
• Ensure your plumbing systems are regularly checked for leaks.
• Use a broom to sweep forecourts and other paved areas. Do not use a hose for this purpose.
• Potable water must not be used to dampen building sand or other building material to prevent it from being blown away.

In addition, please ensure that you comply with the Water By-Law (download our poster English | Afrikaans | isiXhosa for further information) as well as any water restrictions if applicable.

http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/KeepSavingWater/Pages/Watersavingtips.aspx