March 22nd is World Water Day. A time for us to stop and reflect on one of life’s most important resources and to give gratitude for what we have.

It’s ok for us; we have reasonably clean water that is pumped litre after litre into our homes. We freely use it to drink, cook with, clean our home with, wash our clothes and keep ourselves bathed. We fill our kids paddling pools with it, wash our cars, jet wash our patios, put hose pipes on our flowers, pee in it and flush it away, pump it full of chlorine and swim in it.

For many people across the world, it isn’t that easy. Millions of people around the world face water shortages and a struggle to secure safe water for their basic needs every day. In addition, millions of children die from preventable water-borne diseases. Lack of safe water and adequate sanitation is the world’s single largest cause of illness.

World water day calls upon the international community to advance towards a truly integrated approach to the management of the world’s water that ensures its sustainable use for generations to come.

We can begin this at home by being more conscious of the water we use. Look at an average day in your life and think about how much water might get through. I bet your estimate will be far less than your actual usage!

Now I’m a girl who loves my baths, but this week I’ll be trying something completely different. Sally, over at Natural Spa Supplies has challenged me to a week of strip washing. Not only that, but I’m to do it without contaminating my water supply, by using clay!

Sally tells me that a 10 minute shower uses around 120 litres.  Filling a small sink or bowl with water and using that instead, uses around 4 litres. I also know that my immersion heater is one of the hungriest electrical appliance in my house.

I’ll let you know how I get on later in the week.

For ideas about saving water, read our ‘Nine tips to help you save water‘ article.

What about you - what is your biggest ‘water sin’ and where could you cut back on the amount you use?

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