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Are You Prioritising Commercial Water Saving During The Heatwave?

The last few weeks have been incredible weather-wise but while you’re out and about enjoying the sun, do spare a thought for our dwindling water supplies. If ever there was a time to really start focusing on commercial water saving and how you can help protect this precious resource, a heatwave is certainly it.

 

According to a report in the Independent, paddling pools are now out in force around the UK and this hike in pool use is being predicted to increase our national water usage to almost four billion litres at a time… bad news when you think that parts of the country are now drying up and a hosepipe ban has already been introduced in Northern Ireland.

 

Hubbub, an environmental group, has now issued a warning that our water supply could be pushed to breaking point thanks to the use of paddling pools, excess showering and watering our gardens.

 

CEO of the organisation Trewin Restorick said: “It’s astonishing how much water it takes to fill a super-sized pool just to use for a day. As well as being a huge drain on water supplies they can add to water bills and take hours to fill.”

 

So what can businesses do to help relieve some of the pressure on our water supplies? Although it hasn’t rained for quite some time now, when it does you could consider harvesting the rainwater that collects on your roof area. You can then use this, once it’s been filtered, instead of mains water, with typical applications including laundry and process water, vehicle washing and toilet flushing.

 

Not only will a rainwater system help save the planet, it can also increase your cost efficiencies and reduce your water bills. Never forget that using mains water is expensive but you can reduce the costs significantly with a system like this.

 

Alternatively, you could look into water recycling, where the often discarded water from activities like irrigation, vehicle washing and toilet flushing to use in place of mains water. Anglian Water already uses a water recycling system, cleaning the water and returning it to rivers so that it can be reused for irrigation – and even drinking water once it’s been properly treated.

 

Leisure and hospitality businesses in particular would benefit from recycling water because they use so much of this resource – which inevitably costs them a lot of money. But you could potentially save up to 50 per cent on your water costs if you decide to go down this route.

 

It might also be worth finding out more about automated meter reading, a data logging technique that’s used to monitor water usage on site continuously. This means that any issues such as water leaks are identified quickly and can be sorted out immediately, thereby wasting less water – and saving you money at the same time.

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