Britain's water industry regulator wants households to recycle bath water and stop using the liquid from the tap to water gardens and wash cars. Rachel Fletcher, head of water service regulator Ofwat is calling on the British government to do more to help households waste less water.
"The idea of using treated drinking water to water our gardens and wash our cars in the 21st century just doesn't seem appropriate. As a regulator, it is something we will push the companies to innovate on," Ms Fletcher told MPs on the Commons Environment Committee.
READ MORE: Britain Wastes Billions of Litres of Water Endangering Future Supplies
"We do as a sector need to think about transferring water from one region to another. And we have got to shift the frontier in the technology we are using in delivering water supplies," she told the Commons.
The UK is on standby for a hosepipe ban after water supplies became stretched due to a lack of rainfall and a heatwave.
Ofwat want households to recycle bath water and use rain butts to collect water to use outside.
"We will work with government and other partners to do everything we can to make sure we have secure, affordable and an environmentally friendly approach to delivering future water supplies," Ms Fletcher told MPs.
A recent report, the state of the environment: water resource published by the Environment Agency reveals over 3,000 million litres of water is wasted everyday due to leaks. Households also rwaste around a third of water they use each day.