A Wise Use of Water Guide for Owners and Tenants of Condominiums and Housing Cooperatives

Keep our drinking water clean and affordable

It's easy to take drinking water for granted. Whenever we turn on the tap, out comes clean, drinkable water. What few of us realize is that every drop of water that comes out of the tap has been carefully treated to remove impurities and make it safe for drinking.

Water is continually recycled and reused. It's not just used once and flushed away forever, as our "flush and forget" attitude suggests. Every time we flush, we use up to 18 litres of purified drinking water – water that is immediately polluted, making it useless until it has been thoroughly treated again.

Processing all that water is an expensive and complex job. The more water we use, the more we pay. The less we use or abuse it, the less it costs to make it safe to return to the environment.

Reduce, repair, retrofit...

By following the three golden rules for the wise use of water – reduce, repair and retrofit – you can cut your water use nearly in half. And no matter how you pay for the water you use – through your water bill, condo fees, rent or property taxes – your water costs will also be reduced.

Reduce
By making small changes to your water use habits, you can significantly reduce the amount of water you use. You'll be surprised how easy it is to save!

Repair:
Regularly check toilets, pipes and faucets for leaks and repair immediately. One small leak can waste thousands of litres of water a year – which you pay for one way or another.

Retrofit:
Retrofit means adapting or replacing a less water efficient fixture or appliance with one of the many water saving devices now on the market. Recommend this to your landlord, board of directors, condo or co-op manager.

How much water do you use?

The average person in Canada uses about 343 litres of water per day – over twice as much as Europeans.

Toilets account for 30% of your total indoor water use. Combined with showers and baths, the bathroom represents about 65% of your home's total indoor water use.

Small changes can make a big difference

By making small changes to your water use habits, and by using less water, you can help keep our drinking water clean and affordable.

Here's how:

• To use less water in your toilet, install one of the many devices now available at local plumbing or hardware stores. This small investment allows you to save water every time you flush. Don't put rocks or bricks in your toilet tank because they can break up over time and cause a leak.

• For a permanent solution, and especially when renovating, install an ultra low flow toilet that uses six litres or less per flush.

• Check for leaks in your toilet tank fittings by putting a little food colouring in the tank. Wait for up to fifteen minutes and if, without flushing, the colour appears in the toilet bowl, you have a leak that should be repaired immediately.

• Always turn off your taps so they don't drip. If you find a leak somewhere, make sure it gets repaired immediately.

• Install low-flow faucet aerators on your kitchen and bathroom taps and reduce this water use by 25%.

• Take short showers – five minutes or less should do. A switch to a low-flow showerhead will save you money on your energy bill too! If you prefer baths, fill the tub only one-quarter full.

• Turn off the tap while washing dishes, rinsing fruits and vegetables, brushing your teeth or shaving. To rinse, use a partially-filled sink instead.

• If you have an automatic dishwasher, use it only to wash full loads, and use the energy saver or shortest cycle. The same goes for your washing machine.

• Keep a bottle of drinking water in the refrigerator instead of running the tap until the water gets cool. Rinse the container and change the water every few days.

Outdoor water use

In the summer, lawn and gardening watering can increase the demand for water by more than 50%. You can still have a healthy lawn and garden while helping water utilities manage the load on their system. This will ensure adequate reservoir levels and water pressure for possible fire emergencies.

• Soak your lawn weekly to strengthen grass roots and promote a healthy lawn. Use a sprinkler that delivers large flat droplets. It's best to water in the morning or late afternoon.

• Measure how much water your lawn gets; it only needs 2-3 cm of rain or water a week. Place containers in various spots on your lawn when it's raining or while using your sprinkler to judge the amount of water your lawn is getting. More is not always better!

• When you cut your lawn, leave it at least six centimetres long to provide shade for the roots. This will allow the soil to remain moist and require less watering.
  
• When you wash your car, use a bucket and sponge, then rinse it quickly using a trigger nozzle on your hose.

• Clean your driveway or sidewalk with a broom instead of a hose.

• Put a large container out to collect rain water off your roof. Use this water as an alternative to turning on the hose for newly transplanted material, window boxes, flower pots and container gardens. Rain water is actually better for your plants as it does not contain any chlorine and is at ambient temperature.

Down the drain?

To help reduce pollution of our waterways – and our sources of drinking water – use low phosphate and biodegradable cleaning products.

Never put garbage of any kind down the drain, toilet or storm sewer. Cooking grease, household cleaners and other chemicals can be harmful to the environment, not to mention your pipes.

Diapers, dental floss and plastic tampon holders all create problems at wastewater treatment plants.

Treat our water with care – it's non-renewable!

REMEMBER, the WISE USE OF WATER will save you money and help improve the environment.

An environmental citizen uses water wisely
For more information, contact:
Enquiry Centre, Environment Canada, Ottawa, Ontario  K1A 0H3
Toll free: 1-800-668-6767