World Water Day aims to encourage action on how we use, consume and manage water, and includes a global campaign, where individuals commit to taking specific actions.
There is water efficiency training being held by the HSE’s Sustainable Infrastructure office to mark World Water Day – on Thursday 27th March 2025 – See here for registration.
A summary of water efficiency activities across the Irish healthcare sector is available here, with a summary poster of examples here. More detail as follows:
- Water efficiency regular online training on technical actions for a hospital-specific Water Conservation Action Plan. Recordings of the training are also available: Introductory workshop to water conservation, Part 1 measuring and monitoring water use, Part 2 investigating the water used onsite, and Part 3 developing a water conservation action plan.
- Uisce Éireann’s Water Stewardship Programme for training on water quality and conservation.
- HSE’s Water Efficiency Guide for Healthcare facilities. The Water Efficiency Guide sets out how to systematically examine water use in your healthcare facility and how to make efficiency changes to save energy and water without impacting services.
- Efficient water fixtures and fittings are saving hospitals both energy and water costs. See examples of more efficient taps in Sligo University Hospital and showers in Cork University Hospital.
- See how tracking and benchmarking your hospital’s water use can lead to identifying and fixing leaks, like at Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown.
- Hospitals use reverse osmosis to prepare ultra-pure water for applications like sterile services and for dialysis. Find out how to harvest unused water from such systems for reuse elsewhere in your hospital, with an example from Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore.
- Water sub-metering in the National Orthopaedic Hospital.
- Flushing guidelines for legionella and an example of actions taken at Croom Orthopaedic Hospital.