How many times do you reach for the tap?

Published: 15 Oct 2021

On average Australian’s reach for their taps 16 times a day and are running their taps for 12.2 billion minutes a week.*  Which is a lot of water going down the drain!

From October 17 to 23 it’s National Water Week and residents and children can take part in a number of water-saving activities to help conserve our precious resource.

You can sign-up and take part in Water Night on Thursday, October 21, and see if you can avoid using your taps for 12 hours. By taking part it will help you and your family be more mindful of turning on the tap, and you will also go into the draw to win some great water efficient prizes. Visit Water Night to sign up.

Students can take part in council’s water wise drawing competition. It’s open to kindergarten to year three students and year four to year six students and the winner of each category will win a water saving pack for their entire class. Download the sheets here.

Residents and businesses can sign up to council’s free myh2o website and keep track of how much water you’re using each day, how much it’s costing you, put plans in place to save and be alerted to water leaks straight away.

Mayor Greg Williamson said water is such a precious commodity and it’s important we are all conscious of how often we reach for our taps.

“On average in the Mackay region we use about 191 litres of water per person per day, which equates to 5400 Olympic sized swimming pools each year,” he said.

“National Water Week is the perfect opportunity for everyone to monitor their water use and think of ways to save.”

“Some simple water saving tips include keep showers to four minutes or less, turn off taps when washing your hands, fix dripping taps and only water outdoors every second day before 10am after 4pm,” he said.

For more water saving tips visit council's website.

*Research commissioned by not-for-profit Smart Approved WaterMark and conducted by YouGov