Householders in Northern Ireland are encouraged to reduce their water use to preserve supplies.
NI Water says it has seen a significant surge in demand for water across Northern Ireland. With the weather set to stay dry and warm, it’s urging everyone to do their bit and only use the water they need.
Water has been topped up at reservoirs to maintain customer supplies.
Just small changes like using a watering can instead of a hose when watering plants in the garden can make a really big difference, according to NI Water.
Here are top tips from NI Water:
1 Turn off the tap Simply turning off the tap while brushing your teeth, washing your hands or shaving can save over 6 litres of water every minute.
2 Let the ‘yellow mellow’ Toilet flushing is one of the biggest water users in most homes. Consider only flushing the toilet when you really need to. Adding a toilet cistern bag to your cistern will reduce the amount of water used in every flush.
3 Take shorter showers Why not challenge yourself and your family to shower one minute quicker? In a year you could save up to 10,000 litres of water.
4 Take a shower instead of a bath One bath can use up to 100 litres of water, whereas an efficient shower uses under 50 litres. But remember power showers can use more water than baths.
5 Use a bowl for washing vegetables A running kitchen tap can use up to 20 litres of water every minute. You can reduce water waste by using a bowl to wash and prepare your vegetables. Then you can use the water to rinse your recycling.
6 Make full use of your washing machine Half load programmes on washing machines use more than half the water and energy of a full load, so wait until the machine is full before switching it on.
7 Lawns are great survivors Even when they look dry and brown, they’ll spring back with the first heavy rain, so to avoid watering them wherever possible.
8 Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth A running tap can use six litres of water per minute.9 Fix leaking taps A dripping tap can waste more than 60 litres of water per week.
10 Keep a jug of water in the fridge Planning ahead means there is no need to run the water until it gets cold.11 Fill the kettle with only as much water as you need This will save water and energy.