Water guzzling WCs, maybe as many as 300 million across Europe, are wasting around 4 billion litres of water per year, says the UWLA on World Toilet Day.
World Toilet Day is held every year on 19 November and has been an annual United Nations Observance since 2013.
UWLA MD Yvonne Orgill explains that while the objective of the day is to raise awareness of the 3.6 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation, it is also a good time to highlight that UK alone wastes least 35 million litres of water every year – and as much as 4 billion litres across Europe – by using old and inefficient flush systems.
“We know from research undertaken in the UK into the merits of a bathroom scrappage scheme that updating homes with a modern WC could immediately make this huge saving in water usage,” says Yvonne.
Toilet flushing accounts for a quarter of water used in the home today, but the UWLA says with modern dual flush models using as little as 2.6 and 4 litres per flush, it is one of the easiest ways to save water in the home.
“Dual-flush cisterns let the user choose how much water to use when flushing the toilet, so with better education, there is potential to influence behaviour and save even more,” she adds. “These modern WCs are readily available, there are more than 3000 WCs that carry the Unified Water Label listed on the UWLA website.
“We want to raise awareness on this World Toilet Day to encourage people to look at their old WC and consider replacing it. By using a lower volume of water to flush the toilet we can dramatically reduce annual water consumption, and contribute to the protection of this valuable natural resource.”
More information about the Unified Water Label can be found by visiting the website www.uwla.eu
