SAVING WATER: How you and your family can make a difference

Lancashire residents are being urged to take shorter showers to prevent future water shortages.
Nobody wants a hosepipe ban!Nobody wants a hosepipe ban!
Nobody wants a hosepipe ban!

With the average shower taking 10.7 minutes, water supplier United Utilities want you to limit your showering time to just four minutes.

But as well as taking less time in the shower, there are plenty of other water saving tips we can follow.

Here are United Utilities top tips for saving water:

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Plug it! - putting a sink instead if leaving a tap running will save a litre of water every six seconds. Do this when you are peeling potatoes or doing the washing up.

Boil what you need - filling you kettle with just what you need will prevent water waste and save you money on your electricity bill.

Load up, switch on - An average washing machine uses 50 litres of water, and a dishwasher 30 litres. By waiting until you have a full load before pressing ‘start’, you’ll save energy and water.

--> READ MORE: Here's how long the heatwave will last in LancashireThirsty? - keep a container of drinking water in the fridge? That way, you won’t have to run the tap every time you want a cool drink.

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Drip, drip, drip... - a dipping tap can waste 1,460 litres of water a year, enough for twenty baths.

Brushing up on your smile - leaving the tap running when brushing your teeth can waste 9 litres of water every minute – that’s 6,570 litres a year! Remember: when you brush and floss, turn it off.

-->READ MORE: How hot does it have to be before you can legally go home from work? Your rights explainedShower vs baths - A standard shower typically uses less than half as much water as a bath. So getting clean standing up is clearly the way to go if you want to save water. Each super saver switching from a daily bath to a daily shower saves around 15,000 litres of water a year. If you’ve got a power shower, you may wish to consider having shorter showers as they use a lot more water than other types of shower.

Straight down the toilet - A third of the water we use each day goes straight down the toilet. Modern loos with a low or dual flush can save you several litres every time you spend a penny. But if you have an older toilet, fitting a save-a-flush device can also make a big difference. United Utilities provide these handy little gizmos completely free - visit unitedutilities. com/watertight for details.

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Garden care - A watering can uses far less water than a hosepipe or sprinkler, and the smaller droplets are better for your plants. Be sure to water your garden in the early morning or late evening, when you’ll lose less through evaporation. Aim for the plant roots, not the leaves.

There's always a butt - A water butt collects all that lovely rain that falls on your roof, so that you can give your plants a free drink. Plants love rainwater, so there’s no need to waste your tap water.