Learning from off-grid water use: how the bathing practices of houseboat dwellers reconceptualise the water infrastructure–consumption relationship

The infrastructure of modern homes renders water supply invisible. Off-grid houseboat dwellers, however, utilise a water tank that is refilled manually by the householder, leading to a re-evaluation of mundane aspects of everyday life such as bathing. These reappraisals are salient at a time where climate change is creating risks of uncertain, destabilised water supply futures. Through ethnographic interviewing and home tours with 15 off-grid boaters across England, we investigate how disconnection from centralised water systems shapes daily routines, norms and water use patterns for personal hygiene in bathing. We found that boaters develop normalities for bathing off-grid uncoupled from expectations of unlimited and conveniently accessed water. Respondents expressed surprise at the adaptability of everyday bathing, newfound flexibility in water use routines, and an embodied knowingness of their water consumption in typical practices. These realities formed amidst material encounters experienced daily where responsibility for maintaining their supply rendered water visible, limited and tangible. Identifying the potential for reduced water use in bathing through encounters with different home infrastructures has implications for reimagining more sustainable water futures among pressures from climate change. Further, such examples help us contemplate alternatives in bathing practice, style, form and everyday experience amidst increasing demands on precious water resources today through bathing and other forms of everyday habit and routine.