The average person uses around 150 litres of water per day, and we have been looking at simple ways to help local people to reduce this.

Many families in South Asian communities wash rice up to seven times before cooking, and we wanted to understand why and how excess water from that washing could be reused.

Wash rice using less water

Ping Coombes, MasterChef winning South Asian chef, has fronted a series of videos for us demonstrating how to wash rice using less water. Ping has also looked at what can be done with the starchy leftover water. 

With assistance from Emma O'Neill, Head Gardener at horticultural charity Garden Organic, Ping gives viewers advice for re-using nutrient-rich water both in the garden and for hair and beauty purposes.

"Rice is life in South Asian cooking," says Ping, "I am passionate about sustainability and this is a great chance to show some simple ways that we can all do more for our planet. Small changes really can make a big difference."

Supporting UK communities to use less waterThe work we're doing with local communities has been funded by Ofwat's Innovation Fund. Our Head of Innovation, Mumin Islam, said: " We are on a mission to find innovative ways to engage people of diverse faiths and cultures in water saving. Being able to test out new ways of talking to a wide range of audiences is really important, and once we find out what works best we will be creating an inclusive framework and toolkit to share with other UK water companies to support more communities to use less water.

Give us your feedback

We would love to hear your thoughts on these ways of saving water and whether you feel you could apply these to your everyday life. 

Take a look at our survey and as a thank you for your time and input, for every 10 surveys completed, we will donate £50 to WaterAid - Asia. Supporting charities is important to us and we believe this is one way in which we can give back.