Water Consumption Indicator

Toilets Are Not Garbage Cans Pool and Hot Tub Discharging Lawnmowers and Small Gas Engines Air Quality Index Indicator Ground Level Ozone Indicator Combined Sewer Overflow Indicator Quality of Wastewater Indicator Quality of Municipal Drinking Water Indicator Amount of Wastewater Treated Indicator Water Consumption Indicator Detroit River Quality Indicator Tributary Surface Water Indicator

Water Consumption Indicator

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Windsor Utilities Commission treated 61,398,060,000 m³ of water in 2007.

Toilets, sinks, dishwashers, laundry machines and lawn watering all contribute to our water requirements. Almost all of the water we use in our homes or businesses ends up "down the drain". The treatment of water and wastewater is costly. The processes include expensive mechanical and electrical processes requiring lots of energy to treat water for human consumption as well as to treat the waste water generated.

A report from the United Nations predicts that by the year 2050, two thirds of the world will be living in conditions of serious water shortages and one third will be living in absolute water scarcity. The demand for water will exceed availability by 56 percent. The years 2005 to 2015 are the International Decade for Action, Water for Life.

It is important to note that communities in Canada including southern Ontario are already experiencing water shortages.

How are we doing?

The amount of water being treated indicates the amount of water used in the City of Windsor, the Town of Tecumseh and Town of LaSalle. A lower amount indicates a community that values water as a precious natural resource and is better at conserving water.

The table below provides the average litres treated per capita per day including water used for residential, commercial and industrial.

Year	Litres of Drinking Water treated per capita per day (L/capita/day)
2006	693
2007	685
2008	657
2009	598

The average residential water use in the City of Windsor is approximately 320 L/day, which is approximately double the European average.

What can you do to conserve drinking water?

Water Conservation in the Yard:

Use a rain barrel to collect rain water for gardening purposes
Water your lawn only when necessary. An ideal amount of water for turf is 3 to 5 cm (1.5 to 2 inches) of water per week in the summer and 2.5 cm (1 inch) per week in the spring. Frequent watering encourages shallow root growth. Try to incorporate your watering into 2 to 3 days per week.
Water early in the morning or late at night to avoid excessive evaporation.
Use a broom to clean sidewalks and driveways instead of a hose.
If you choose to wash your car at home, hand wash your car with a bucket and sponge with environmentally friendly soap so you only need a light rinse of water to get rid of soap; and park your car on the lawn so the water helps the grass.
Put a layer of mulch around trees and plants. Bark and other mulch or peat moss slows down evaporation and help keep the soil moist.

Water Conservation in the Bathroom:

A running tap uses about 8 litres of water per minute. So turn off the tap when your brushing your teeth and shaving.
Install low flow shower heads and low flow toilets to reduce consumption and generation of waste water from your home.
Fix leaks in your toilet and replace faulty tap washers in your sink. A tap that leaks one drop per second will waste close to 9,000 litres in a year.
Replace your water guzzling toilet with an efficient 6 litre or dual flush toilets. If you switch from a standard toilet (19 litres) to a low-flow model (6 litres), you will reduce your water consumption by more than 75,000 litres per year. For toilets larger than 6 litres (1.3 gallons), place a plastic bottle filled with water into the tank. This reduces the volume of water in the tank, but still provides enough for flushing.

Water Conservation in the Kitchen and Laundry:

When washing dishes by hand, don't wash or rinse with running water. Use a dish, tubs or plug in the sink to rinse dishes.
Keep a jug of drinking water in the refrigerator. This beats the wasteful habit of running the tap water to cool it before drinking.
Always run dishwashers with a full load. This will save water, energy, detergent and money.
Before loading the dishwasher, scrape dishes into the garbage instead of rinsing them with running water.
Use a load selector on your clothes washing machine to match the water level to the size of the load. If you do not have a selector, only wash full loads.
When replacing an old washing machine, replace it with an energy-efficient front-loading machine. Front-loading washing machines use less than half the water of conventional washers.