From some time maybe in the 1970's or 1980's to some time in the early 2000's, and to some extent to this day, a strange notion started spreading in Finland. And that was the notion that people should not waste tap water needlessly, and only use as much as was needed and no more. Don't leave water taps running for longer than necessary, don't flush the toilet unnecessarily, and so on.
In fact, water saving toilets became extremely widespread during that time, with two flush levers: One to use a smaller amount of water and another to use a larger amount, and instructions on when to use which.
The thing is: Being conservative on how much tap water is being used makes sense in many countries where water is scarce and being wasteful about it is detrimental. However, Finland is not one of those countries (and neither are most of the northern and central European countries, or Canada, and many other similar countries).
In Finland (and other Nordic Countries) water is not scarce. Water does not run out. It's the traditional cycle of water: Water evaporates from the seas, rains on land, and runs back to the sea as rivers. Over and over, as a continuous cycle.
Tap water in Finland just taps (hah!) onto this cycle. Water is taken from various replenishing sources on land, purified, and run through pipes which, ultimately, end up also in the sea.
And the thing is: This water isn't being stored somewhere for long periods of time. In fact, it can't be stored for long periods of time, or else it will start to accumulate biological contaminants (algae, bacteria, etc.) It's being constantly cycled: Water is taken from the land to reservoirs, these reservoirs are constantly flowing water through pipes, these pipes eventually end up in the sea. No different from what happens naturally with rivers.
You literally can not waste tap water in Finland. Even if you leave all water taps and showers fully open 24/7 you will not be consuming any more water than would be consumed otherwise. The only thing you will be slightly changing is the route that that water is taking. If it's not going through your taps and drainage, it will be flowing from somewhere else to the sea. You are not so much "using" water as you are just slightly changing which route it takes.
(Yes, some housing companies will charge you for how much water you use, although in general they don't actually measure the actual water usage and instead charge you based on the size of your apartment, regardless of how much you actually use. This is mostly just a money-making scheme, pretty much. Sadly, it's not illegal. Sigh.)
"Who cares? What difference does it make?" one might ask. After all, if it's all the same, what harm does it do if some households don't use that much water?
It actually does make a difference and is detrimental, and this has been pointed out by many professionals over the decades (including in TV news programs and similar): And that is, when a lot of households go to insane extents to use as little tap water as possible, it increases the chances that the sewage pipes attached to those buildings start clogging up because of the lack of running water.
This actually increases costs, which eventually end up raising rents.
So, ironically, by everybody saving tap water they are just hurting themselves economically. And for no good reason.
While I believe that this notion that "we need to save tap water" is not as prevalent today as it was 20 years ago, that mentality will always prevail to some extent.
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