Making your School Water Efficient Stage 4

Stage 4: Reducing Water Consumption

It is important to understand where water is being used. A water audit or survey can be undertaken to provide a detailed picture or water use across your school. The audit will identify areas where water savings can be made and will recommend fittings and change in practices that will save you water and money.

Different schools will have different facilities but there will be a typical pattern of consumption. Common areas of undue consumption that an audit will identify are:

• Uncontrolled urinals; this includes urinals where controls are present but have not been maintained. In this situation water is being used to flush the urinal continuously, regardless of the level of use and sometimes even when the school is closed.

• Taps that can be left running, have long draw-offs or are leaking.

Installation of Water Efficient Fittings

The installation of water efficient fittings can help dramatically reduce water usage and provide a good case for the saying 'spend money to save money'. 

• Installing a urinal control that limits flushing to hygiene flushes when the school is not in use, can reduce water consumption from over 315,000 litres to 3,600 litres per urinal per year.

• Replacement taps that lower the flow rate and automatically switch off after a set period can cut water use. A tap using 12 litres a minute, for a duration of seven minutes per day would use 420 litres in one school week. Reducing the flow rate to four litres a minute would reduce this to 140 litres per school week.

• Fitting a cistern displacement device in each toilet cistern can save up one to three litres per flush.

Raising Awareness

Influencing user behaviour is an important component in reducing water use.  There are many ways to get pupils and staff engaged in reducing water use.  For example:

• Identify a water efficient champion/s to co-ordinate internal campaigns

• Have the pupils design and lead an internal campaign, giving them a sense of ownership over the project

• Inform the whole school of current consumption. Use volumes pupils will relate to, such as buckets and water bottles to demonstrate water use per pupil

• Imcorporate water saving into water related curriculum topics such as the water cycle, rivers and weather

• Have displays in key water using areas regaridng water conservation, this could include top tips for saving water

• Get the pupils to undertake their own audit i.e. measure tap flows, monitor toilet use, calculate water use in different areas of the school