The two-minute habit that could save Cornwall 15,000 litres

Check the sink next time you brush your teeth. If the tap is running the whole time, you are pouring away roughly a bathtub’s worth of water every fortnight, without the water ever touching a single tooth. Multiply that by a dry summer and thousands of Cornish households doing the same thing, and a habit that feels utterly harmless starts to add up fast.

South West Water is asking customers across Cornwall to make small adjustments to their daily routines, after the Met Office confirmed that England and Wales have provisionally recorded their driest July on record, with Southern England seeing its driest month ever measured in a series dating back to 1836. The company says prolonged hot, dry weather has placed increased demand on supplies, and that individual actions may look small on their own but add up to a meaningful difference when enough people make them.

The two minutes that add up to 15,000 litres a year

Start with the bathroom. A standard tap uses around 10 litres of water a minute, so leaving it running for the full two minutes recommended for brushing your teeth can waste 20 litres in one go. Do that twice a day, every day, for a year, and it comes to nearly 15,000 litres down the plughole for nothing. The fix costs nothing either. Turn the tap on to wet the brush, turn it off while you scrub, and turn it back on to rinse.

Shave a minute off the shower

Showers are the next easy win. A standard showerhead uses around 12 litres a minute, so every minute shaved off adds up quickly across a household. South West Water suggests aiming for four minutes and has put together a shower karaoke playlist of songs timed to run out at exactly the right moment, so nobody has to stand there watching a clock.

Water plants without wasting a drop

In the garden, swap the hose for a watering can and do it in the morning or evening rather than the middle of the day, when much of the water simply evaporates before it reaches the roots. Leftover cooking water, once it has cooled and as long as it wasn’t salted, works just as well on borders and pots, and so does old water tipped out of a pet’s bowl.

Small kitchen and bathroom habits

A jug of water kept in the fridge means nobody has to run the tap waiting for it to turn cold every time they want a drink. The same trick works in reverse too. Hold a jug under the tap until it runs cold, or under the shower while it warms up, and that water can go straight on to the plants instead of down the drain.

Dishwashers and washing machines are worth a second look as well. Both can use around 40 litres of water per cycle, more in older models, so running them only when genuinely full, rather than part-loading them out of habit, cuts down the number of cycles needed across a week. Loading the dishwasher with breakfast things as well as the previous night’s dinner plates is often enough to get a full load rather than two half-empty ones.

The leak that can waste 400 litres a day

The single biggest thing worth checking, though, has nothing to do with routine at all. A leaking toilet can waste up to 400 litres of water a day, and many of these leaks are silent, running away unnoticed for months. South West Water has a simple toilet roll test that can reveal one in a couple of minutes, explained on its guide to fixing a leaky loo, alongside dripping taps, which are worth a quick check around the house at the same time.

Megan Williams, Water Efficiency Manager at South West Water, said the company’s teams have been working hard behind the scenes too. “We’ve maximised water production wherever possible, increased leak detection and repairs, moved water around our network and introduced a wide range of operational measures to make the best use of the water available,” Megan said. “Customers can help us protect the region’s water supplies by saving water in small, easy ways without disturbing their daily routines.”

“Climate change is showing us that weather patterns are going to be less predictable and put more pressure on our resources due to longer periods of warm, dry weather,” she added. “That’s why it’s so important we all work together to be more water aware and build more resilience whatever the weather.”