While at home you might be closer to your swimming places than you realise. Water coming out of your taps is sourced from both surface water – lakes, rivers and reservoirs – and from groundwater. Changing rainfall patterns combined with increasing demand have created water stress and unsustainable extraction of water even from habitats that are globally rare. In Hampshire, Southern Water proposed a desalination plant in order to reduce abstraction from the catchment areas of the Itchen and Test Rivers, both of which are precious being rare chalk streams. However, alongside high energy consumption desalination takes a toll on marine wildlife. While filters prevent animals from being drawn into desalination facilities animals and fish can still be injured and killed. Additionally the concentration of waste brine can be harmful to small fish and plankton including juvenile invertebrates such as lobsters and oysters. Some of these species are commercially important and all of them have a role within the wider food web of marine life. While water companies need to fix leaks in pipes, we can look at our own water use habits at home. There is enough water for us to use but not enough for us to waste.