Water is everywhere, in us and around us, in liquid, solid or gas form. Take a moment and consider how wonderful water truly is. A sparkling lake on a hot summer's day, ice cubes clinking in your glass of cool drink, a hot shower on tired muscles, gentle rain feeding our gardens and refreshing our souls.

We rely on water each and every day for our very lives and well being. But, the water we have on earth is finite and the amount of water that is available for human consumption is actually reducing due to many wasteful or polluting practices.

WWF South Africa has identified that:

11 of 19 water management areas in SA have water supply problems.

12-14 million South Africans do not have access to safe drinking water.

If we continue at our present rate of water consumption, we could run out of drinking water before 2040.

More water facts:

• Water is reusable and not renewable.
• It is possible to drink water that was here in the dinosaur era.
• The average rainfall in South Africa is 500mm, well below the world average of 860mm.
• An average urban home of 4.6 people uses 640 litres of water/day.
• The human body is comprised of 80 percent water.

You can survive about a month without food, but only five to seven days without water.

It is surprisingly easy for households to reduce water consumption by between 30 percent and 60 percent.

Lets work together to look after our water and this can save you money too. Here's how...

Savvy appliances:

Go high-tech: Consider buying a high-efficiency washing machine that will use an average of 30 percent. water and 40 to 50 percent less energy.

Water efficiency: Before buying a washing machine or dishwasher, ask how much water they use in each cycle. Choose carefully as they can differ quite significantly. A front-loading washing machine can use up to 40 percent less water than a top-loading model.

Be wise: Only use washing machines and dishwashers when there is a full load.

Kitchen savvy:

Tap aerators: These inexpensive devices reduce the flow in kitchen taps by around 50-75 percent, while still providing sufficient water for washing-up purposes.

Save running water: While waiting for cold water to turn hot, use a plug so that you can use this water later or divert the water into a bucket for use elsewhere.

Avoid rinsing vegetables under running water: Use a bowl and then use the water in the garden.

Leave it to the dishwasher: Avoid rinsing your dishes in the sink before loading them into the dishwasher. Modern dishwashers do a thorough job of cleaning. If you feel the need to clean before loading, scrape rather than rinse.

Waterless defrosting: Defrost frozen foods in the microwave or leave out in the morning for use that evening instead of defrosting under running water.

Bathroom conscious:

Bathing versus showering: An average bath uses 160 litres. A five-minute shower typically uses 60 litres. Share the water with your partner and let children bath together.

Catch it in the shower: Place a bucket in the shower to collect water, which you can then use to water the garden, wash your car or outside floors or even flush the toilet.

Use a low-flow showerhead: Fitting a low-flow showerhead typically reduces shower water use by 50-75 percent. Some even have a 'shower off' button to conserve water while you lather up.

Save running water: While shaving or brushing teeth, keep the tap turned off.

Reduce the toilet flush volume: Put a displacement container in the cistern (try a two-litre bottle filled with water and add a little sand as ballast). This can save you 20 percent of your total water consumption with no reduction in convenience. You can also save water by installing a dual-flush or multi-flush device on your toilet.

Fix that leak: A leaking toilet can waste as much as 300 000 litres per year.

Rethink what you flush: Avoid flushing sanitary wear, cigarette butts and plastic packaging down the toilet. Sanitary wear can take 120 days to decompose and plastics can take hundreds of years to break down. Chemicals and medicines flushed into the sewage system can be dangerous and costly to filter out and any leak anywhere in the piping system will result in these chemicals filtering into and polluting our groundwater.

Visit www.enviropaedia.com for more information.