What You Can Do to Conserve Utah’s Water

Three easy solutions to water conservation could be xeriscaping, avoiding overwatering/leakage, and taking shorter showers.

1. Xeriscaping

   One way to conserve water is by xeriscaping. Xeriscaping is landscaping using the natural, native plants and trees as an alternative to grass. This might include planting cactuses or desert flowers in your front yard where grass would be. Responsible xeriscaping can save up to 70% of your irrigation water, assuming you don’t want any kind of lawn in your yard.

2. Avoiding Overwatering and Leakage

   Now, let’s say you’re like me, and xeriscaping isn’t really your scene. Maybe you want a lawn to give your family a place to play or to put some green into your life. You can still conserve water by avoiding overwatering and leakage.
   
   To avoid overwatering, you can check the weekly lawn watering guide for how often and how much to water depending on where you live. The watering guide is updated every week, and it gives a lot of great information for lawn watering in Utah.
   
   You can also check your sprinklers to make sure they aren’t leaking or using water inefficiently. And if it ever rains, you can always turn them off. It’s not xeriscaping, but you can still enjoy your lawn and conserve lots of water.

3. Taking Shorter Showers

   Another way to conserve water is just by taking shorter showers. According to Harvard (cited by St. George News), every minute of your shower uses 2.5 gallons of water. So, if you were to shave 1 minute off every shower, you could be saving 2.5 gallons every day—17.5 gallons every week. Shave 2 minutes, and that number doubles! Taking shorter showers is an easy everyday way to conserve water.