Breaking barriers and battling wastage
12/02/2010
Thousands are to be encouraged to use water wisely with the help of people with disabilities.
B.O.P.H (Business Opportunities for the Physically Handicapped) is assisting Essex & Suffolk Water with the Home Water Survey 2010. The Canvey Island based charity, which aims to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities, is working with the local water supplier to help customers in the local area use water wisely.
B.O.P.H volunteers are preparing thousands of letters and water saving packs to be delivered to customers in Canvey Island as part of the Water Survey 2010.
After the water saving packs are prepared by the charity’s volunteers, technicians from the water company will be hand delivering them to around 5,000 customers in Canvey Island. The Water Survey 2010 pack contains a survey to assess a household’s current water usage and products to help save water in the home and garden, including a shower timer, trigger hose gun, save-a-flush and water storing crystals.
To thank them for their support Essex & Suffolk Water has donated £3,000 to the charity, which relies entirely on donations and fundraising to keep running.
The water company hopes that the Water Survey 2010 will help customers make the most of the area’s precious water resources. Customers who took part in a similar project last year are now on average saving 25 litres of water every day. This is equivalent to each customer saving 112 full baths per year or flushing the toilet over 1,000 times.
B.O.P.H opened it’s doors fifteen years ago to provide people who are physically disabled or have learning difficulties with a normal working environment on leaving school. This gives them stability in their lives, the chance to enhance their personal development and maximises their potential while carers are given much needed respite.
Joan Lythgoe from B.O.P.H said, “We are so pleased that Essex & Suffolk Water involved us with the Home Water Survey. It is great to be involved in a project that will help water customers in our area protect the environment. It has given everyone here an enormous sense of pride to undertake this valuable work.”
Dave Pearse, project manager from Essex & Suffolk Water, said: “It’s incredibly heart warming to see the fantastic work that is going on at B.O.P.H. The charity clearly has an enormously positive impact on the people they work with. By supporting us with the Water Survey 2010, B.O.P.H is helping make the most of our precious water resources, which is particularly important in this area as it is the driest part of the UK”.
Using water wisely fact file:
The average person in the region uses nearly 160 litres of water per day – that’s over 58,000 litres of water a year.
A dripping tap can waste 26 litres of water in 24 hours, which is enough for a shower.
Leaving the tap running when you clean your teeth can waste up to 6 litres of water each time.
Toilet flushing alone uses about one third of an average household’s water consumption.
A garden sprinkler can use the equivalent of seven baths of water in just one hour – that’s nearly 500 litres.
Essex & Suffolk Water has been running water efficiency projects since 1997 and has since that time contacted over 149,000 households.