The pie charts illustrate the proportions of water consumption in households from 1988 to 2008.
Overall, it is clear that while the bathroom and the kitchen accounted for the largest shares of water consumption in both years, the kitchen outpaced the bathroom to become the leading sector by the final year. In addition, the garden surpassed the toilet as the sector with the lowest water usage by 2008.
In 1988, the bathroom’s water consumption comprised a quarter of all residential sectors; two decades later, it increased to 29%, becoming the second largest water consumer. In contrast, the figure for the kitchen doubled from 15% to 30%, which marked it as the primary source of water consumption in 2008.
Looking at the other categories, water use decreased in all of them. The biggest drop was in the garden, where the percentage fell from 20% in 1988 to only 8% in 2008. Similarly, the figure for washing clothes went down slightly from 22% to 19%. Finally, water consumption for toilets also decreased from 18% to 14% over the 20-year period.