In the Netherlands, water from the tap is very clean and the quality of the water is very good, which is why it is very important that we handle it properly. This is to prevent dehydration and unnecessary waste, both for society and the environment and for your water consumption bill. You can immediately apply the advice below, but sometimes you first have to invest some money to save water.
Drinking water
Often several liters of clean drinking water are wasted by brushing teeth, this is a real shame, especially because it costs a lot of energy and it is not cheap to make drinking water of this quality. In the Netherlands, more water is used every year, so more and more has to be produced, which will certainly affect the price. But you can keep your water bill low by using water smartly and sensibly, and it is also beneficial for the environment.
The environment
Check your pipes because leaking pipes, even just 10 drops can easily amount to 1000 liters per year, can waste many liters of water. Stop showering a minute earlier, if we all did that, billions of liters less water would be consumed and millions of m3 less gas would be used every year. Do not flush leftovers of medicine or paint down the mud basin or toilet, but save them and offer them to the special cleaning stations of your municipality. This type of residual waste can end up in the groundwater and have a negative impact on water extraction. Modern toilet cisterns and shower heads can save a lot of water. Take a shower, you use about 70 liters of water instead of a bath, which uses about 130 liters of water. With a flush interrupter on the cistern of your toilet you can save 7 to 8 thousand liters of water. If you want hot water, cold water comes out of the tap first. Collect it and use it to water the plants or wash your vegetables with it. You can reduce water consumption by making the opening of the hole smaller. Special rings are available for this purpose or a modified nozzle, these only cost a few euros and you can save 2 to 3 thousand liters of water. Only using the washing machine when it is full, this also saves a lot of energy in addition to saving water.
In and around the house
It is not necessary to water the garden every day in the summer, just do this once or twice a week. Then the plants will have longer roots and in times of drought, the plants with the longer roots can find water deeper in the ground. Use buckets of water instead of the garden hose, which will give you a significant saving of approximately 75 percent. If you spill 1 liter of oil, this can mean that 1 million liters of water are no longer suitable for our drinking water supply. Proceed carefully if you want to top up oil. It sounds old-fashioned, but you can use a rain barrel in which you collect rainwater. to wash your car or for the garden. It is soft water and you always have it within reach.
Energy efficient equipment
It is also possible to opt for energy-efficient and water-saving equipment when replacing your washing machine and/or central heating boiler or other equipment. It is not only beneficial for the environment, but it also saves you a nice amount on your gas, water and electricity bill.