Reducing your water usage lowers your water and power bills, while also being good for the environment! It keeps rivers flowing and healthy – good for our native flora and fauna, and good for the estuaries and oceans fed by our rivers. It reduces the electricity demands of capturing, treating, and pumping the water to our homes, and the energy you use to heat and use the water – lowering emissions and your electricity bill.
Do you know how much water you use? Try The Water Conservancy’s water use calculator and find out where you can save water.
The House
There’s a lot of ways you can save water around your home – helping the environment and saving you money!
In your bathroom
The bathroom is full of easy opportunities to save a lot of water. Check out these videos (https://smartwateradvice.org/videos/) to learn how to:
- Stop any leaks and make your plumbing more efficient.
- Fix a leaking tap: a leaking tap can waste 12,000 litres of water a year, but it’s cheap and simple to fix!
- Check your toilet for leaks: a leaking toilet can waste 100,000 litres of water every year and you might not even know it’s leaking! Luckily, it’s easy to test if you’ve got a leak.
- Install a flow controller on your bathroom taps. A bathroom tap can use about 16 litres of water a minute. That’s a lot of water being wasted while you’re washing your hands. A flow controller can reduce water flow by more than 50% without reducing your water pressure.
- Install a water efficient showerhead – this can save a family of four up to 35,000 litres per year. It also cuts your hot water bill!
If you’re doing renovations, consider installing a dual-flush toilet to save even more water. You should also make sure your pipes are well-insulated to reduce your water-heating bill.
In the laundry
The laundry can use up to 20% of your household water, but you can cut back to save water, electricity, and money!
- Make sure your hot water system isn’t set too high – about 60°C is optimal. Using cold water to cool down water that is too hot wastes both water and electricity.
- Check your taps and fix any leaks.
- Consider purchasing a 5- or 6-star washing machine to save a lot of water. A front-loading machine is the most efficient and will save you the most money.
In the kitchen
10% of household water is used for cooking, cleaning, dishwashing, and drinking. Check out what you can do to save water in the kitchen. (link) https://smartwateradvice.org/how-to-save-water/home/kitchen/
The Garden
Your garden can use a lot of your household water – sometimes more than half of the water you use! Here’s a few simple steps you can take to use less water in the garden.
Step one: mulch your garden beds! Mulch keeps your soil cool and protects your plants from extreme heat during the summer. It can also suppress weeds, adds nutrients into your soil, and reduce soil evaporation by up to 70%. This means you don’t need to water your plants as often. You don’t need to use expensive mulch – any mulch is better than no mulch.
Step two: water smart! During the warmer months, you should only water your garden between 6pm and 9am to avoid the hottest part of the day. This gives the water enough time to soak into the ground and get to the roots of the plant. Use a trigger nozzle hose so you don’t waste water as you walk to different plants.
Be careful not to water too frequently by checking if your plants need more water – push the mulch aside and put your finger into the soil. If it is moist below the surface, you don’t need to water. Many plants prefer less frequent watering - this helps roots to grow further down to find water, making plants less reliant on watering and more able to cope with hot, dry days.
Step 3: choose the right plants! Using Water Conservancy’s Plant Finder link: (https://www.smartwatermark.org/smartwateradvice/plant-finder/) you can find the best plants for your water efficient garden. With hundreds of plants to choose from, you’re sure to find the right one for your space.
Find more water saving tips for your garden here(PDF, 400KB)
Council incentives
We offer the following incentives for local residents who are connected to the Queanbeyan-Palerang water supply.
- Free home audit carried out by a licensed plumber
- Subsidised dual flush toilets for eligible residences (following the home audit)
- Subsidies for retrofitted rainwater tanks to existing residences
- Subsidies for rainwater tanks to eligible new residences
For more information please visit: https://www.qprc.nsw.gov.au/Services/Water/Water-and-Sewer#section-11