Power showers, garden sprinklers and why most of the water we use is... money down the drain

For years it was the mantra of every eco-warrior, consumer guru and politician keen to jump on the green band- wagon — showers are better than baths.

But now the anti-bath campaigners appear to have been hung out to dry.

A new study has found some modern showers waste so much water, their owners would be better off spending half an hour soaking in the tub.

Research into the habits of 100 families discovered that power showers use twice as much energy and hot water as a bath.

Even an ordinary shower eight minutes long is nearly as wasteful as a bath, the soap giant Unilever claims.

The findings don’t just challenge the misconception that showers are always eco-friendly, they also highlight the extraordinary amount of clean drinking water that goes down the plughole or round the U-bend.

According to the study, a typical Briton consumes 150 litres, or 33 gallons, of fresh water every day on everything from our morning ablutions to watering the garden and washing clothes.

Every dribble of that total — equivalent to two baths of water for every person — has been filtered, treated and chlorinated to make it safe to consume.

But this is all a drop in the ocean compared with the hidden or ‘embedded’ water used to produce our food, clothes and household goods — equivalent to 3,300 litres or 725 gallons for each of us every day.

Our water use has been going up since the Thirties, fuelled by labour-saving gadgets and lifestyles. 

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