In my opinion, yes, but hypocritically it doesn’t stop me from enjoying them. Politicians encourage us to use our cars less and increase fuel tax to force us into line. Then they use our tax money to fuel their own transport. They don’t really have a leg to stand on when they try to push all this “Carbon Footprint” stuff, but it doesn’t stop them from doing it anyway.

I am environmentally conscious when it comes to pollution i.e. the use of chemicals for cleaning and litter outside, but whilst I am still able to enjoy a bath I will. Saying that, gas, electric and water utility bills are still climbing, so the everyday bath may have to take a back seat. With summer on the way, the good old shower will do nicely.

Now let’s consider the amount of water that is wasted objectively. The results are surprising. On average, if you spend much more than five minutes in the shower, even a modern low-flow, high-pressure shower, then you will use about the same volume of water as you would if you filled baths each day. Electric showers tend to use less water than mixer shower so you can usually spend a little more time in those.

To give actual numerical values to this discussion, average showers will use around 3-5 gallons of water every minute. Taking the extreme of 5 gallons, that value in litres is 23 Litres (rounded to nearest whole number). The average bathtub contains around 30-50 gallons of water. 50 gallons equates to 227.5 litres. Run the shower for ten minutes and that is 10 x 23L = 230 Litres, so in this case the shower would use more water than the bathtub. A seven minute shower is a sensible compromise as it will save on water and provide enough time to get thoroughly clean. A five minute shower on the other hand, would make a positive difference, especially if everyone else followed suit. An immediate incentive for you, regardless of what anyone else does, is the money you will save on you utility bills.