Swindon residents and businesses reduced their daily water use by more than 1.7 million litres last year – exceeding Thames Water’s Save Water Swindon 1 million litres campaign target.

The initiative saw every household in Swindon offered a free water-saving visit or the opportunity to request gadgets to install themselves. More than 24,000 homes took up the offer, saving 46.6 litres each per day, on average.

Thames Water started Save Water Swindon to help protect the River Kennet catchment area, which is home to one of only 200 chalk streams left in the world and is the habitat for species including water voles, water crowfoot, river lamprey and brown trout. Some of Swindon’s water supply comes from groundwater in the catchment and Save Water Swindon encouraged people to make the connection between their water use and the local environment.

Karen Simpson, Save Water Swindon project coordinator at Thames Water, said:

“I’m absolutely delighted we have beaten our ambitious target of saving one million litres per day. This is the result of four and a half years of dedication by our customers in Swindon, Thames Water and our partners WaterWise, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), ARK (Action for the River Kennet) and Swindon Borough Council.”

“Swindon residents have shown how much they care about the River Kennet, which will be better able to cope with periods of low rainfall and changing weather patterns as a result.”

Charlotte Hitchmough, director of Action for the River Kennet campaign group, said the project had helped preserve the river’s wildlife, which also includes mayflies and otters.

The campaign saw almost a third of Swindon households order water-saving freebies including efficient showerheads, tap inserts and toilet cistern bags or have a home visit to fit them.

The average savings achieved mean metered households, which took part in Save Water Swindon, could save £35 on their annual water bills. Using less hot water means all households could have also saved an average of £36 on energy bills.

David Miles, Affordable Warmth co-ordinator at Swindon Borough Council, said:

“We have been proud to include water saving as part of our Safe & Warm scheme and are thrilled that Save Water Swindon has beaten its target for reducing water use.

“It has helped many Swindon residents to save money on their water heating bills and reduce pressure on our local river wildlife. It has been great to be able to include the practical measures as part of the energy saving improvements we offer to people.”

Thames Water also provided water efficiency measures and advice at a number of schools and business in Swindon and carried out extensive research on how to reduce water use in other areas of the country.

This work resulted in an extra 640,000 litres per day being saved, in addition to the one million litres saved by residents, bringing the total saving for the campaign to 1.78 million litres per day.

Jacob Tompkins, managing director of WaterWise, added:

“This pilot demonstrates that large-scale, whole town water efficiency interventions can successfully deliver significant contributions to water company supply demand balance. Now we would love to see this approach scaled up and used in other areas.”