A Swell Way To Flush

SAVE-a-flush devices to help reduce water use in homes and public buildings across the county, are being made available.
The device is a small plastic bag of granules that swell up when placed in the cistern of a toilet, displacing around a litre of water. Water is then saved with each flush without loss of efficiency.

Oxfordshire fire crews have joined forces with the county council?s Future First environmental team and Thames Water to try to combat the threat of water shortages across the county.

Water is a big issue in Oxfordshire at the moment with water use increasing at a rate of 2% each year so residents could be facing major shortages within five years.

Save-a-flush devices will be offered to staff across the county council and used in all the toilet cisterns in each of the Oxfordshire fire stations. They will also be widely available to members of the public from collection points in council-owned buildings, including libraries.

Oxfordshire County Council say: “Across the county, in homes and businesses, vast amounts of natural resources such as paper, water and fuel are used to power lights, computers, heating and vehicles. Our use of these resources and the waste materials and gases produced, all has a detrimental impact on our living environment. This is known as our environmental footprint.
“In April 2005 the county council developed Future First – a project aimed at helping to reduce the county council?s environmental footprint.”

Kerry Blair, a station manager in the Emergency Response Team of the Fire and Rescue Service said: “We have a good supply of Save-a-flush devices from Thames Water that can be distributed throughout Oxfordshire. County council firefighters will be handing them out to residents when they carry out home fire risk assessments, too.
“The Fire and Rescue Service is always looking at ways to save water, including during its own training exercises when water is recycled at every opportunity.
“The amazing thing about these devices is that by saving a litre of water per flush; for the average family this can amount to 2,000 gallons of water a year, or 35,000 cups of tea! So, it?s definitely worth putting one in your cistern!”

Lynn Launchbury, Water Efficiency Campaign Manager at Thames Water, said: “It’s great to see more organisations taking an active interest in conserving supplies. Toilets are among the biggest users of water in the workplace and in homes, so the free devices could play a major part in reducing usage, as well as saving money for customers with meters.”