Cistern Saver

Yep, you read that right, get yourself a hippo. But no, we’re not talking about the animal, we’re talking about this. The water hippo is a small container you pop in your toilet cistern to reduce the amount of water you flush each time you pull the handle. Toilet flushing takes up more than a quarter of the water usage in an average home,¹ so let’s start flushing with purpose!

Why?

Water

Here’s a thought for you while you’re in the loo: every year, 15,000 litres¹ of perfectly drinkable water is flushed down the toilet in each household. That’s enough to keep 4.2 pigs watered and happy for a year!² Depending on your cistern, you can save up to 2 to 3 litres of water each time you flush.

The water saved by one hippo might not seem very significant, but as with most of our DoActions, when you add everyone’s actions together, the difference is huge. Together, up to  30 Olympic sized pools of water have been saved per day³ by cistern saving hippos!

Energy & climate change

A fair bit of energy is required to clean the water before it is useable for consumption. Add that to the energy required to power the pump to bring it to your tap, and you see that even water has a carbon price tag.

Wallet

You can potentially knock £25 off your water bills annually with a single hippo at home or £3 per employee in the workplace if you’re on a water meter.³ A water hippo usually pays for itself within 8 – 12 weeks, and best of all, these hippos don’t need replacement, they last pretty much last as long as your cistern.