With so much of the world suffering from drought, you might think your ability to help is minimal. But when you consider the average person in the UK uses around 142 litres of water a day, it’s easy to see how small changes to your routine can add up.
More than half of the water that is extracted from rivers, streams and aquifers in the UK feeds the public water supply. These abstractions, as they’re called, worsen drought conditions by draining local waterways, depriving vegetation, fish and other aquatic life of the water they need to survive droughts.
Filling paddling pools to cool off, taking multiple showers each day to stay clean, watering the garden to revive wilting plants – all these extra activities contribute to a sharp increase in public water use on hot and dry days. And these impacts can endure for months, as freshwater systems need a lot of additional rainfall to recover from droughts.
