The government has enforced the hosepipe ban across many parts of southern and eastern England as a response to the driest two-year period on record. Those who ignore the hosepipe ban face up to a £1000 fine.

However, many customers may be left feeling this is an unfair deal when water suppliers themselves waste billions of litres of water each day through leaks. One cause of this is old pipes – 20% of London’s pipes are 150 years old.

But the cost of replacing leaking pipes is too high, say suppliers, so it is much more practical for the government to encourage the public to “be smarter about how we use water” (and make it illegal for us to do otherwise!) than to fix old and leaking pipes.

There is lots of advice on how people can reduce water wastage, such as using bathwater and washing up water to wash the car, and even very small changes such as turning off taps whilst cleaning teeth. But people will still undoubtedly question why suppliers such as Thames Water are not being encouraged to be “smarter about how they use water” alongside their customers efforts.

The Water Delivery Company supports environmentally conscious efforts to reduce water wastage, by both customers and suppliers. The instantly chilled or heated filtered water from our fountains and coolers may reduce wastage from waiting for taps to run cold or hot, and, as an added bonus, are also cost-effective and stylish to boot!

We’ve all heard about the increasing focus on reducing our carbon footprints, but there’s now a new buzzword that’s causing a splash – water footprints. This is the amount of water each country uses each year; it is not only what we use as individuals, but the water used in the production of goods and services.

There is a vast difference between countries in the size of their water footprints. The U.K. has a fairly low water footprint, with measures like the hosepipe ban demonstrating our relatively conscientious water usage. The worst offenders are the U.S., China, India, the Russian Federation, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, and Pakistan – together, these eight countries represent 50% of the entire world’s water footprint. In fact, with by far the highest household usage in the world at 575 litres, every single American has an individual water footprint of around 2.5 million litres of water a year – enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool!

In stark comparison, some countries, such as Mozambique, Rwanda, Haiti, have an average individual household of just 15 litres a day, highlighting a severe disparity in accessibility to water and an obvious case of water poverty in some countries.

The Water Delivery Company advocates sensible and considerate water usage, and is proud that the U.K. has shown itself to be a nation of environmentally conscious consumers when it comes to using water.