ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how relate to water in the home and how this has changed over time. The rationale is that, by understanding the drivers for change and the extent, style and consequences of change in the past, a more realistic framework for understanding potential changes in the use of water in the long- and short-term can be developed. Most urban homes in the industrialised world enjoy the direct benefits of three water services: water supply, foul drainage and surface water drainage. In examining how water practices in the home have changed over time we need to bear in mind how many practices occur variously outside and inside the home. The various individual and collective benefits from water-using practices change with perception of what is important and why it is done, in other words, with the meaning of the practice.
