By Marcus Leach

More people would rather live without a flushing toilet than Facebook or email a new study reveals.

In a study of 3000 British adults by the Science Museum, more people rated their mobile phone more vital to everyday life than a shower or central heating. Google was also rated more vital than having a car.

Sunshine was voted as the top thing that Brits simply could not live without, with internet connection in second place, clean drinking water third, a fridge in fourth and Facebook in fifth place.

Other necessities to make the top ten were the National Health Service in sixth place followed by a cooker. E-mail came out in eighth place, while a flushing toilet came in ninth. A mobile phone completed the top ten.

The study was carried out for the Science Museum’s new exhibition - Water Wars: fight the food crisis. The exhibition highlights the urgent need for more fresh water to grow food for the world’s rising population.

“Brits are obsessed by the weather, so it’s not surprising sunshine was rated as the top thing we couldn’t live without," Sarah Richardson, Science Museum Exhibition Manager said.

"But to say you can’t live without material things over drinking water is crazy. It seems having fresh drinking water is something that many of us take for granted but is becoming scarcer in many parts of the world. If you see how little water others have to drink or grow food you soon realise water is fast becoming a luxury for millions.”

The new exhibition looks at five different technologies that engineers are developing to help solve the problem of water scarcity — to prevent us facing a global food crisis in the future.

“Many of us don’t realise how much fresh water goes into the food we eat everyday - from vegetables to our favourite chocolate bar," Sarah Richardson continues.

"It takes thirteen bath tubs to grow ingredients for just one bar of chocolate! As we import about 40 percent of our food from abroad we’re indirectly using a lot of other people’s water."

In the poll, other items Brits said they couldn’t live without included a push-up bra, chocolate, painkillers and gym membership.

Light bulbs, disposable nappies and spell-check were also listed with the social networking site Twitter completing the top 50. The full list of items is below.

Top 50 things we couldn't live without:

1. Sunshine, 2. Internet connection, 3. Clean drinking water, 4. Fridge, 5. Facebook, 6. NHS, 7. Cooker, 8. Email, 9. Flushing toilet, 10. Mobile phone / smartphone, 11. Tea and Coffee, 12. Washing machine, 13. Shower, 14. Central heating, 15. Painkillers, 16. Fresh vegetables, 17. Vacuum Cleaner, 18. Kettle, 19. Sofa, 20. Shoes, 21. Fresh fruit, 22. Google, 23. Car, 24. Hair straighteners, 25. Public transport, 26. Laptop, 27. Chocolate, 28. DVD Player, 29. Wristwatch, 30. Make-up, 31. Flat screen TV, 32. Wedding ring, 33. Tumble dryer, 34. Bottled water, 35. Ebay, 36. Bicycle, 37. Ipod, 38. Air conditioning, 39. Disposable nappies, 40. Light bulbs, 41. Spell-check, 42. Sat Nav, 43. Push-up bra, 44. Nintendo Wii, 45. iPad, 46. Gym Membership, 47. Season Ticket to your football club, 48. Freezer, 49. Xbox, 50. Twitter.