Effective reduction of water use in households

The drinking water industry in Sweden has historically not focused on measures to reduce water use, but the ongoing climate changes have led to water shortages during hot summers at several places in Sweden.

This has created a driving force to implement measures for reduced water use in order to reduce the stress on raw water sources and wastewater recipients.The purpose of this project is to identify and characterize methods that can be used to achieve reduced water use in households in Sweden so that informative decisions can be made and the methods that give the greatest effect can be implemented.Getting a group of individuals to change their behavior and reduce their water use is, however, complex as a number of factors affect individuals´ water use today and the conditions for reducing water use.

The challenge lies in finding the solutions that have the potential to succeed.

They can be of a technical, legal, economic or social nature, or a combination of all of them, which requires a broad approach and a good understanding of all parts and their interaction.The project´s effect goal is that the methods that have been shown to be effective and best adapted to Swedish conditions immediately after the implementation project will be able to be implemented nationally.

The project group´s long-term goal is to create a system transfer and reduce water use in Swedish households to less than 100 l per person and year, which is 40 l less than today (Svenskt Vatten, 2019).