A reflection of our Love Water journey so far
Love Water was brought to life in 2018, with a vision to help change the way our community perceived, valued and used our most precious resource, water. Love Water has touched every corner of the Lower Hunter, from households to local businesses and beyond, gaining national recognition for its success along the way.
Ahead of our first Love Water Day this National Water Week, we take a look back at the lessons learned so far and how Love Water has helped shape our community’s water use behaviour.
Love Water has taught us that water is our most valuable resource, and like all the things we love in life, we want to protect and treasure it. Love Water became the Lower Hunter’s word of honour, a promise to preserve this precious resource.
Love Water has taught us that it belongs to all of us. As the campaign started to take shape and make waves, we all started to change a little, to save a lot, and so our community's water consumption started to change. The Love Water pledge was introduced, and we all started finding simple ways we could each reduce our water use, from shorter showers to using rainwater in our laundries, there were ways we could all make a difference and we started to see this far and wide in our community.
Love Water has taught us that together, we can. This campaign has brought us together to protect this resource, and while we had not seen much rain in 2019, we all worked together to reduce our water use. Shower timers and buckets were placed in showers, greywater was diverted from the drain to our lawns and we were waiting for full loads before washing our clothes. Together, we started to make a big difference. Between September 2019 and September 2020, our community used 15 per cent less water than expected, saving the same amount of water consumed in 52,000 homes.
Love Water has taught us that there are many simple ways we can all save bucket loads of water in our homes, with the humble household bucket. This helped make water saving easy, real and achievable for our community. We were inspired to ask ourselves “how will I save my buckets today?”.
Love Water has taught us that now and forever, we need to Love Water together. It has brought to light that water is a finite resource and the Smart Water Choices we make now will save water for our future. Smart Water Choices like watering the garden before 10am or after 4pm, using a trigger nozzle, and sweeping up hard surfaces are easy things we can all do to help our region maintain great water-saving behaviours.
Love Water makes us proud. Proud to be a water conscious community. Now and forever, Love Water together.
Love Water Day
This year for National Water Week, we’re doing something special to celebrate all the simple ways we can save water around our homes! On Saturday 24 October we’re asking YOU to snap a picture or take a short video and join in on #LoveWaterDay