1. Services for Residents
  2. Power, Water & Sewer
  3. Drinking Water
  4. Be Water Wise

Be Water Wise

Save yourself money and protect the environment – Be Water Wise!

Water conservation (using water carefully) will help to keep your utility bill costs down. Careful water use can also help ensure that the City can meet the community’s water needs in the long term, even with a growing population.

Water conservation helps manage water demand to ease the strain on the City’s water system, especially during summer peak periods. By easing strains on our capacity-limited water system and creating opportunities to better manage and schedule our capital expenditures, we can potentially defer or reduce spending.

Water use can double during the growing season for outdoor watering. While gardens and lawns do require watering, water is often wasted due to over-watering and evaporation.

A graphic with a water drop character in a yard with the text "Be Water Wise, Outside!"

   Eight Simple Tips for Saving Water Outdoors

  • Use SmartUTIL to view home water use and trends for your property by month, day, or hour; set spending alerts for water use, and take steps to lower your bill.
  • Your lawn needs less than 1 inch of water per week to stay healthy (including rain!). You can use a tuna can to test how long your sprinklers need to run; set the can in your sprinkler zone and time how long it takes to fill.
  • Water early in the day. When temperatures heat up and the sun is high, water evaporation is at its peak. By watering in the morning, you ensure that more of the water soaks into your lawn and garden, benefitting the plants.
  • Install a rain barrel to collect rainwater for use on your lawn or garden. Switching to rainwater for irrigation will lower your water bill. If you are buying a rain barrel, visit our Rain Barrel Rebates page to see how you may be eligible for a rebate.
  • Fix drips and leaks. Leaking taps, hoses and sprinklers can add up to substantial water loss if they are not fixed or replaced. Check washers and connections frequently, and repair hoses as needed.
  • Use mulch. By applying a four-inch layer of wood mulch to flower beds and around shrubs, you can slow water evaporation and suppress the growth of weeds. Replenish every few years as needed. You can pick up one cubic yard of compost and mulch for free while quantities are available. Contact 306-975-2476 for more information.
  • Sweep instead of spray. Reach for a broom instead of the hose to clean yard debris for patios and decks.
  • Landscape mindfully. Instead of living with existing slopes in your yard, which can be difficult to irrigate and lead to runoff, consider planting ground covers or shrubs which will help keep water within the soil. Native plants will be both effective and affordable.

A graphic with a water drop character beside a kitchen sink with the text "Be Water Wise, Outside!"

   Eight Simple Tips for Saving Water Indoors

  1. Use SmartUTIL to view home water use and trends for your property by month, day, or hour; set spending alerts for water use, and take steps to lower your bill.
  2. Install low-flow/high-efficiency fixtures. Examples include high-efficiency shower heads and low-flush toilets.
  3. Be mindful of time. Shorten your shower time and reduce the level of water when bathing.
  4. Run full loads only. Make sure the dishwasher and washing machine are full before you run a cycle.
  5. Fix leaks as soon as you notice them. Fixing leaky faucets and toilets could save you about 10 percent on your water bill. Put a few drops of food coloring in the tank as a toilet leak detector. Wait for 25 minutes. If the color spreads into the toilet bowl, there is a leak.
  6. Wash your car at the car wash. Washing at home with a hose for ten minutes uses 300 litres of water. Washing at home also sends soap, oil, and other chemicals to the river through storm drains. At a car wash, run-off is captured and disposed of properly.
  7. Collect and use "grey water" for watering your indoor (or outdoor) plants. Grey water is the relatively clean waste water from sinks (for example from washing fruit or vegetables) and other kitchen appliances.
  8. In case of emergency, know where your master water shut-off valve is located.

 

Water Conservation: Did you know?

The City approved the Water Conservation Strategy in 2022. Providing the community with safe and high-quality drinking water is a top priority for the City of Saskatoon. A changing climate and aging water treatment infrastructure are risks to our water system. Water conservation can help ensure that we can meet the community’s water needs in the long term, even with a growing population.

Your water conservation efforts help the City to use tax dollars more effectively. Water conservation helps manage water demand to ease the strain on the City’s water system, especially during summer peak periods. By easing strains on our capacity-limited water system and creating opportunities to better manage and schedule our capital expenditures, we can potentially defer or reduce spending.

Peak demand for water in Saskatoon is trending upwards. Fluctuations are attributable to weather—with hot dry summers driving up peak demand. The trend is concerning because strain on water and wastewater systems due to increased demand is identified as the highest risk to city operations from climate change. And climate change projections show the likelihood of prolonged hot weather and drought conditions is increasing.

A significant amount of energy is required to treat, distribute, and manage our water and our wastewater. By reducing your water consumption, you help conserve energy use, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and help ease the burden on our water and wastewater treatment plants and distribution systems. The water conservation targets were set in the LEC Plan. Action 25 is a 5% reduction in absolute water demand by 2026. Action 26 is a 20% outdoor and 30% indoor water use reduction by 2050.

The City of Saskatoon is Conserving Water. The City is finding ways to save water and costs in its own operations. Work is underway to keep parks healthy by using less water and naturalizing more areas; advanced irrigation control systems and weather monitoring technologies can keep the grass healthy with less water, and water-saving fixtures are being installed in civic facilities. 

As part of the City’s Water Conservation Strategy, the City is implementing actions to reduce water usage and costs related to the operation of spray pads. In year two of the spray pad water conservation project, three spray pads will be updated with a combination of misters and lower-flow nozzles, which will save water without compromising the spray pad experience. The three spray pads that will be updated are in Briarwood, Stonebridge, and River Heights. These upgrades are expected to reduce water use by 20-60% while maintaining 100% of the fun. Water conservation work at the spray pads began in 2023 and helped save 6.4 million litres of water – the same amount of water used by 33 households in a year. Trials from the 2023 pilot are now being incorporated to test newer nozzle combinations in 2024.