A new campaign is urging the public to reduce water use as the UK emerges from a heatwave Water

The biggest ever campaign to encourage the public to reduce their water use will be launched this week, as the UK emerges from record temperatures caused by the climate crisis.

The £75m advertising campaign, called Let’s Save Water, will advise and encourage people to treat water as a precious resource and aims for everyone to reduce their daily consumption by 28 liters – or two large buckets – from the current average consumption of around 140 liters a day.

A partnership involving water companies, water regulator Ofwat, the Environment Agency, the Met Office and Natural Resources Wales is running the campaign, which will be paid for by the water companies over four years.

Water consumption in England and Wales is among the highest in Europe, with countries such as Germany and the Netherlands averaging 120 liters per person per day in comparison.

A team of behavioral psychologists is advising on the campaign, which aims to change attitudes towards water use.

“The important issue is, how do we make people believe that water is an important resource?” said Prof Thomas Webb, a social psychologist at the University of Sheffield. “So we have to change the mindset. We need to make people aware of how much water they use and help them see this as a collective effort, and something they can be proud of.”

Water shortages in England and Wales are predicted to reach 5bn liters a day by 2055 – the equivalent of a shortage of 2,000 Olympic pools – due to climate change, population growth and the rise of water-intensive industries such as datacentres.

But the research of this campaign shows that people do not know how much water they use, and they underestimate its use by a factor of 5 – on average, people believe they use 30 liters a day, compared to the reality that they use about 140 liters.

The mainline ban came into force in Kent on Friday morning, days after South East Water urged customers to use water sparingly as demand rises due to the heater.

Professor Lizzie Kendon, head of climate and processes strategy at the Met Office, said: “Climate change is driving more extreme weather, wetter winters, drier summers and heavier bursts of rain.

“When it rains in a dry, hard place, most of it cannot sink into the soil, where it is most important, instead it runs away and is lost.

The campaign urges the public to make small everyday changes to their habits to reduce water use – such as taking shorter showers, using garden sprinklers and fixing dripping taps. Showers use 10 liters of water per minute, and replacing the shower head with a water-saving model can reduce usage by up to 50%, lowering energy bills.

Professor Ian Walker, head of psychology at Swansea University and one of the campaign’s academic advisers, said people needed to be empowered to take action.

“Well, what you need is a system to take information from a smart device, give it to the family in real time and combine it with meaningful information about what to do with it.”

He said that one-time changes, such as buying a water-efficient shower and washing machine, are the easiest behavioral changes to encourage. But the usual behavior – which included a lot of water consumption – was very difficult to change.

Those behind the campaign admit that with public trust in water companies at very low levels – due to record pollution, drinking water cuts in the south-east of England, and companies including Thames Water at high levels of debt and failing to meet their statutory obligations – the bid to reduce water use may be a hard sell.

Water company leakages account for 19% of water demand, and no new reservoirs have been built in England by water companies for 30 years.

The industry has now committed to building 10 new pools as part of a £104bn investment over the next five years.

James Wallace, chief executive of River Action, said: “We welcome any initiatives that encourage people to conserve water.

But Wallace said the main responsibility for saving water rests with the companies themselves: since going private, £78bn has been paid out to shareholders, and more than 3bn liters of drinking water are lost every day through leaking pipes. “We need a fully funded national emergency plan that will hold polluters and water companies accountable.”

Mr. Shas Sheehan, the chairman of the House of Lords environmental and climate change committee, who recently called for a community-wide campaign to reduce water use, said it is important that this campaign is supported by a reliable communication strategy throughout the year. “That strategy must be transparent, consistent and show that the water companies are taking tangible steps to repair their houses. The campaign must bring the community together,” he said.

“At the moment, there is a clear risk that the messages of reducing water use will not be as intended, given the erosion of public trust in water companies … water companies must lead by example if they expect further changes in public behavior.”