Ways to encourage water conservation

Question

What are some ways to encourage water conservation?
Municipal utilities are implementing metered water systems to encourage conservation. For someone who lives in a rainforest climate where water is plentiful and is used to water as a free resource this seem unnecessarily punitive.
I agree that we should all be mindful of our water consumption.
I would be interested in learning about some other ways of doing this - ie - a tap or shower head that provides an indicator of the amount of water used per session.

Kira Chatterton · Accepted Answer

My Favorite Ways to Conserve Water
Don't use the toilet as an ashtray or wastebasket
Every time you flush a cigarette butt, facial tissue or other small bit of trash, five to seven gallons of water is wasted.
Install water-saving shower heads and low-flow faucet aerators
Inexpensive water saving shower head  or restrictors are easy to install.
 Put plastic bottles or float booster in your toilet tank
To cut down on water waste, put an inch or two of sand or pebbles inside each of two plastic bottles to weigh them down. Fill the bottles with water, screw the lids on, and put them in your toilet tank, safely away from the operating mechanisms. Or, buy an inexpensive tank bank or float booster. This may save ten or more gallons of water per day.   (I love this one! Each of my toilets have a bottle of water in the tank)
Insulate your water pipes.
It's easy and inexpensive to insulate your water pipes  with pre-slit foam pipe insulation. You'll get hot water faster plus avoid wasting water while it heats up.
Check your toilets for leaks
Put a little food coloring in your toilet tank. If, without flushing, the color begins to appear in the bowl within 30 minutes, you have a leak that should be repaired immediately.
Also, Replacing an 18 liter per flush toilet with an ultra-low volume (ULV) 6 liter flush model represents a 70% savings in water flushed and will cut indoor use by about 30%
Use your dishwasher and clothes washer for only full loads
Automatic dishwashers and clothes washers should be fully loaded for optimum water conservation.
 
These are my favorites!  To see more go to this website, http://eartheasy.com/live_water_saving.htm
 
Kira Chatterton,
http://www.gogreenwaterfilter.com

Taxonomy