Where to pee, or not to pee

Interested in water charge savings?

A controversial university campaign to get students urinating in the shower instead of the toilet has estimated the UK could save up to €546 million a year, if everyone just “changed their morning habits”.

Not asking a lot then. But students Debs Torr and Chris Dobson at the University of East Anglia (UEA) say, at a cost of two pence per flush, using 12 litres of water, the savings from this unsavoury venture could be considerable.

“We’ve done the maths and this project stands to have a phenomenal impact,” said Mr Dobson.

“With 15,000 students at UEA, over a year we would save enough water to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool 26 times over.”

Such figures are enticing. If such a change in morning habits spread throughout East Anglia, they estimate savings of €54 million, or 70 million litres of water. In the UK, that would mean €546 million or 720 million litres.

While such an uptake is inconceivable, it is food for thought for Irish people now facing into their own water charges.

“The campaign has been really divisive - people either seem to love it or hate it,” Mr Dobson said.

“But that’s exactly what we want. We’re trying to challenge conventional behaviour; to start a debate on a resource that we largely take for granted.”

The students' #gowiththeflow campaign has picked up considerable media attention and is inspired by the success of the Brazilian eco-group "SOS Mata Atlantica" who encouraged the same policy.