Drought: tips for reducing your water bill

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On a daily basis, when it comes to drinking water, you don't need to drink a lot to increase your consumption. A few simple steps are enough. A demonstration can be seen as soon as you wake up in the bathroom. With a simple shower to start the day: in just ten minutes, you'll already have consumed 60 liters of water. 60 liters, just to wash. Six more for flushing the toilet. 60 liters also for running a washing machine. And things don't get any better in the kitchen after breakfast.

For a small set of dishes consisting of a cup, a frying pan, a plate, and a few cutlery items, you can turn on the tap in barely two minutes and use more than 30 liters of water. In one morning, the meter shot up to 156 liters. That's a little more than the average French person's daily consumption. So, how can you reduce your bill ? In Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), we meet a resident who has become an expert in saving water.

"A very simple trick is to have a faucet that incorporates an aerator that adds air bubbles to the water, so that it feels like the same flow, but there is 30 to 40% less water," explains Floris Van Lidth, manager of "Vue sur Verre." Aerators costing a few euros each, are integrated into all his faucets, as well as toilets, all equipped with them. "Here, you have a hand basin, in fact, which allows, when you wash your hands, to feed the reserve of the flush. Everyone must come and wash their hands here, it's mandatory. That way, we can be sure that it partially fills the reserve," explains Floris Van Lidth.

Result: up to 3 liters saved per use. And to save even more, he even had a urinal installed. "A urinal flush is a maximum of half a liter," emphasizes Floris Van Lidth. With all these techniques, his water bill has plummeted. Just 44 cubic meters per year for him and his partner, half the French average.

Saving water in an apartment wouldn't be so complicated. But what about when you have a garden to water? Still in Marseille, Annick and Philippe Buffard have also found some tricks for conserving water without damaging their plants, even in summer. "You have a gutter that centralizes all the rainwater from the different roofs, and then the water goes into the cistern," explains Philippe Buffard, owner of "La Bédouïde." A cistern that fills up during the rainy winter, then available almost at will. But these retirees don't just collect the water. It is also recycled directly into their garden.

"It's the phyto-purification system for all the wastewater in the house. Showers, sinks, the kitchen sink, dishwasher, washing machine, except for the toilet flushes," Philippe shows us. The dirty water passes through four successive tanks containing different plants: reed, iris and papyrus. A natural filter that cleans thanks to the bacteria contained in the soil. The wastewater becomes clear water again. The purified water ends up in the "terminal pond," Philippe explains.

This clean water is not officially consumable, at least for humans. But it can easily be used to water the vegetable garden. Where, on average, a French person uses up to 15 liters of drinking water per square meter of garden, they don't consume a drop and they hope to set an example. "Our house was designed a little to show what we can do to do better, to do our part as hummingbirds," summarizes Philippe. His partner, Annick, adds: "There are regions that have always had water and are now realizing that there are restrictions and that they don't know how to live with it. In our region, we have always known that it has been precious. And it is part of an approach to living in sobriety, let's say, a happy sobriety."

These useful actions could soon become essential. With global warming, 88% of France's territory is expected to experience water resource pressures by 2050.