A thirsty mason with a mallet and chisel might drink two or three litres of water a day. A CNC miller router can be splashing 75 litres a minute around. That sort of change is happening across many industries and the water suppliers are so concerned about it that they have set up an advisory body called Waterwise to help companies reduce their water consumption.

The main message they want to get over to companies is that saving water can also save money, especially as installing water filtration and recycling systems could be 100% reclaimable in the first year under the Enhanced Capital Allowance Scheme.

Jacob Tomkins, the director of Waterwise, which was launched on 1 September, is currently working towards having recycling plant included on the technology \'green list\' that would enable masons to reclaim the cost of installation against tax.

Some masonry companies have already installed water filtration and recycling units in their workshops and more are joining them all the time, especially in association with purchases of CNC workcentres, because it keeps their water bills down. Being able to write off the cost against tax would certainly prove an incentive to increase the trend.

You might think water companies would be happy if firms were using a lot of water but they are not because they are running out of it and finding or creating new sources is expensive - typically £2-3 for each extra litre and they need millions of litres to constitute a water source.

You might find it difficult to believe that the UK has a shortage of water, but the industry says it has less available per person than any other European country apart from Belgium and Cyprus. And demand for the water there is has risen by an average of 1% a year since the 1930s.

Waterwise aims to reverse that trend within five years and one of the ways they intend to do that is by getting industry to use less water.

Waterwise shares the offices of the water industry\'s trade body, Water UK, in London, but, although it is funded by the water companies, is independent of them.

The initiative by the water companies was welcomed by Environment Minister Elliot Morley when it was set up on 1 September. The Minister said: "The government has long supported a twin track approach to meeting the balance of supply and demand, in which the full range of measures to reduce demand are pursued before improvements to the supply network are planned."

When NSS contacted local water companies their staff had no knowledge of Waterwise nor the Enhanced Capital Allowance Scheme, so do not expect too much help from them. However, Jacob Tompkins will help. He can be contacted on Tel: 020 7344 1841.