Wow. Day 31, and I have, for the most part, succeeded in using no more than 25 litres of water per day to meet all my needs. In a society set up such as ours, this made for a lot of extra work and some uncomfortable social situations. Still I got through it and it was worth it to hear all your stories about how you have been thinking about your own personal water consumption.
I got an email from one guy who heard about the challenge and it spurred him to finally get around to buying two low flow toilets for his home as well as two for his mother and one for an aunt. He calculated that with a pretty conservative three flushes per day on all these toilets which he installed, replacing older 13 litre-per-flush models, he saved 3255 litres of water over 31 days. And this, my friends, is why I engaged in this challenge.
Tomorrow I shower. And I have to say I’m really looking forward to it. In saying that, I’m not going to have a half hour shower. Though living on 25 litres per day is not at all practical, I will continue with some water saving habits that I formed this month. Some ideas on how you can make small changes in your home to conserve water:
- Turn off the tap when brushing teeth and/or shaving
- Rinse vegetables in a bowl rather than under a running tap
- If you like to drink cold water, keep a jug of it in the fridge rather than running the tap until its cold each time
- If you are unfortunate enough to live in an area where the city recommends flushing lead from the pipes for 5 minutes before you consume water, fill large containers of water in the morning to minimize the amount of water you use for flushing the pipes
- Yellow? Let it mellow!
- Catch the cold water from the shower as it is heating up in a bucket and use this to flush your toilet.
- Re-use grey water from dishes and laundry to flush your toilet, or if you are using biodegradable detergents, water your plants.
The possibilities are almost endless. Here’s a website with a bunch more tips:
http://www.wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve/index.php
I’ve made use of a lot of traditional media this month to get the message across to people, including television, radio and newspaper. But the use of online social networking and blogging has helped me reach an even wider audience. I’ve even had some fun combining my message with art. Check out this slam poem I performed last weekend about my challenge:
This is my second to last blog. I’ll post one more in the next couple of weeks, letting you all know how much water was collectively saved through your pledges. Thank you for your continued support this month. Thank you to all who pledged to reduce their own water consumption for 31 days. Thank you to my friends who followed after me in public washrooms to flush for me! Thank you to all!
It’s been a blast!
Alina.
The buckets are plotting against me!
It’s Day 26 of the Water Conservation Challenge and 6 more days until I can have a shower – a luxury I am much looking forward to! It seems that my buckets are conspiring against me and always putting themselves in locations in my house that are as far away as possible from where I need them – this matters a lot in a 3 storey house! I’ve spent a lot of time trudging up and down stairs with buckets. Actually, in truth this challenge has been a lot easier than I thought – and once you make the big changes such as using grey water to flush and bathing out of a bucket, it is not difficult at all to come in under 25 litres of water per day. I have about 70 litres banked right now. I could take a short shower. But I won’t – when else do you have the excuse not shower for a month? ;)
It’s funny how in different views and contexts, 25 litres can sometime seem like so much, and other times so little. For example, while waiting for my big 20 litre jug to fill in the bathtub (because it won’t fit under any other tap in my house) and then hoisting it downstairs (20 litres = roughly 20 kg or 44 lb), 20 litres of water seems like a lot! But then while walking across the Victoria Bridge the other day, I looked down upon the water, I imagined what a cube containing my 25 litres of water would look like, and figured the sides would be roughly the size of a bandana. So as I watched a bandana-shaped patch of water flow beneath me, suddenly 25 litres seemed like nothing.
A lot of people have asked me this month “Why should we conserve water? We have so much water”. This is due to the widespread Myth of Abundance of freshwater that most people in Canada still believe. Yes, Canada has 7% of the worlds freshwater, but the overwhelming majority of that water is either locked up in arctic ice, or in the Great Lakes. The water in the Great Lakes is the melt-water left over from the last Ice Age, and less than 2% of it is actually renewable water. Once it’s gone, or polluted, that’s it. Here in Saskatchewan, most of our water is locked away in northern lakes. Most of the large centres in Saskatchewan draw their water from either the North or South Saskatchewan Rivers. Both of these rivers are glacier-fed beginning in the Rocky Mountains. The glaciers that feed into the South Saskatchewan River declined in size by 50% between 1975 and 1998. If this trend continues (and it’s quite likely to), it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that we will be facing water supply problems in the future. Add to this, the fact that within Alberta, no new licences have been granted to take water from the South Saskatchewan River for several years now because the river is over-allocated, and you can start to see why it is important to start getting used to the idea of conserving water!
Enough technical talk. This has been an awesome, yet challenging, month and I’ve been thrilled with how many people have told me how much more they are thinking about their water use now, and actively finding ways to reduce their consumption. It’s not too late to pledge water – just send me a message back (Reply to me only, not Reply All please) telling me how much you think you can reduce your daily consumption by for the next 30 days and I’ll add it to the tally.
For those of you in Saskatoon, I will be giving a short talk at a Water Conservation Open House at the Farmers Market this weekend, at 11am in the Ecovillage office (southwest corner of the building). Or if you prefer a slighly less formal, more entertaining forum come out to the Poetry Slam at Lydias on Sunday night 8pm to hear about my water challenge in the style of a Slam Poem.
6 more days!
Alina
It’s funny how in different views and contexts, 25 litres can sometime seem like so much, and other times so little. For example, while waiting for my big 20 litre jug to fill in the bathtub (because it won’t fit under any other tap in my house) and then hoisting it downstairs (20 litres = roughly 20 kg or 44 lb), 20 litres of water seems like a lot! But then while walking across the Victoria Bridge the other day, I looked down upon the water, I imagined what a cube containing my 25 litres of water would look like, and figured the sides would be roughly the size of a bandana. So as I watched a bandana-shaped patch of water flow beneath me, suddenly 25 litres seemed like nothing.
A lot of people have asked me this month “Why should we conserve water? We have so much water”. This is due to the widespread Myth of Abundance of freshwater that most people in Canada still believe. Yes, Canada has 7% of the worlds freshwater, but the overwhelming majority of that water is either locked up in arctic ice, or in the Great Lakes. The water in the Great Lakes is the melt-water left over from the last Ice Age, and less than 2% of it is actually renewable water. Once it’s gone, or polluted, that’s it. Here in Saskatchewan, most of our water is locked away in northern lakes. Most of the large centres in Saskatchewan draw their water from either the North or South Saskatchewan Rivers. Both of these rivers are glacier-fed beginning in the Rocky Mountains. The glaciers that feed into the South Saskatchewan River declined in size by 50% between 1975 and 1998. If this trend continues (and it’s quite likely to), it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that we will be facing water supply problems in the future. Add to this, the fact that within Alberta, no new licences have been granted to take water from the South Saskatchewan River for several years now because the river is over-allocated, and you can start to see why it is important to start getting used to the idea of conserving water!
Enough technical talk. This has been an awesome, yet challenging, month and I’ve been thrilled with how many people have told me how much more they are thinking about their water use now, and actively finding ways to reduce their consumption. It’s not too late to pledge water – just send me a message back (Reply to me only, not Reply All please) telling me how much you think you can reduce your daily consumption by for the next 30 days and I’ll add it to the tally.
For those of you in Saskatoon, I will be giving a short talk at a Water Conservation Open House at the Farmers Market this weekend, at 11am in the Ecovillage office (southwest corner of the building). Or if you prefer a slighly less formal, more entertaining forum come out to the Poetry Slam at Lydias on Sunday night 8pm to hear about my water challenge in the style of a Slam Poem.
6 more days!
Alina
When I travel I always bring my own buckets...
Today is Day 16 of the Water Conservation Challenge and marks my halfway point! Yay!
The last week has presented some unique challenges. Living on 25 litres of water is difficult at home, but on a being on the road in motel rooms presents a whole new set of challenges. Neither of the places I stayed at had a kettle with which to heat water, nor a microwave. I was travelling for work in northern Saskatchewan and services are not quite what they are in more populated areas. Luckily I was accompanied by a masters student who was conducting acid rain research in the area, so was able to ask him to fill a bucket with hot water for me while he showered.
The bane of my existence last week was the unseasonably warm spring weather up in La Loche. Almost all the snow in town has melted and paved areas off main roads are not all that common. My jeans, gloves and shoes got pretty muddy on my first day and will definitely need washing. After one day in town I had the sense to go everywhere in Sorels (for those not from Canada, these are big chunky rubber winter boots). They were three sizes too big for me, and I did some serious leg muscle building hauling them around town, but it helped to keep things at least reasonably clean!
I’ve been a bit behind with uploading the videos and blogs, so here’s a whole bunch at once:
How can you measure how much water your toilet tank uses per flush? Click here:
Greywater recycling, click here:
Doing laundry on a water diet:
Alina
The last week has presented some unique challenges. Living on 25 litres of water is difficult at home, but on a being on the road in motel rooms presents a whole new set of challenges. Neither of the places I stayed at had a kettle with which to heat water, nor a microwave. I was travelling for work in northern Saskatchewan and services are not quite what they are in more populated areas. Luckily I was accompanied by a masters student who was conducting acid rain research in the area, so was able to ask him to fill a bucket with hot water for me while he showered.
The bane of my existence last week was the unseasonably warm spring weather up in La Loche. Almost all the snow in town has melted and paved areas off main roads are not all that common. My jeans, gloves and shoes got pretty muddy on my first day and will definitely need washing. After one day in town I had the sense to go everywhere in Sorels (for those not from Canada, these are big chunky rubber winter boots). They were three sizes too big for me, and I did some serious leg muscle building hauling them around town, but it helped to keep things at least reasonably clean!
I’ve been a bit behind with uploading the videos and blogs, so here’s a whole bunch at once:
How can you measure how much water your toilet tank uses per flush? Click here:
Greywater recycling, click here:
Doing laundry on a water diet:
Alina
Laundry, Pigeons and Members of Parliament.
Okay, it’s day six and I’ve amassed a moderate sized pile of laundry. I have managed to bank 33 litres of water of the past 5 days, so I think that will come in handy today. Not that I will be wasteful and blow the lot, but it’s nice to know it’s there if I need it.
I boiled a soup pot full of water on the stove this morning, and have mixed it with some cold in a big storage tote. With the lid on, I’ve found you can slosh it around and mimic the effects of a washing machine quite easily. I’m leaving it to soak for another hour or so and will then begin my ‘rinse cycle’ Watch for videos in coming days.
Now Kevin warned me before I began that the biggest challenge I would face is time. But I wasn’t prepared for just how much time everything takes! When you have to heat all your hot water in a kettle and on the stove, because you can’t afford to run the tap, it adds a lot of time onto everyday activities. I live in a three-storey house. I’m getting better at taking my water bottle with me all over the house – it’s rather annoying to use the bathroom on the third floor only to find that my hand-washing bottle is on the main floor! But hey... at least I don’t have to walk ten kilometres a day to gather water from a contaminated well to bring back to my village for my family, as is the reality for many women in developing nations.
Now I’ve been carrying around a pledge form in my pocket to get friends on board at any given moment and last night I got to use it to garner some high profile pledges! I was having a drink in a bar with some friends when I noticed Saskatoon city councillor Darren Hill at a nearby table. I explained my water challenge and asked for him to pledge some water which he willingly did – before introducing me to MP Scott Brison from Nova Scotia who also pledged to save 25 litres of water per day for a month!
Along with these successes and high points, there have been a couple of low points. I’ve had a couple of unexpected water uses crop up – the most notable one being a little incident on Thursday morning. Somehow a pigeon got into my house during the night (I think down the chimney) and my cat evidently spent the night chasing it around the house. It was very strange to find a stunned pigeon under my bed when I woke up! Unfortunately my cats antics resulted in feathers everywhere and dried pigeon blood on the walls, floor and even ceiling :( Given that pigeons carry many diseases, I’ve had to use a good amount of hot water to clean up after this little fiasco. I am happy to report that after some recovery time outside (its been pretty mild here recently) the pigeon flew off to the south, hope he/she was okay...
So the challenge continues, stay tuned for the next instalment!
Alina
I boiled a soup pot full of water on the stove this morning, and have mixed it with some cold in a big storage tote. With the lid on, I’ve found you can slosh it around and mimic the effects of a washing machine quite easily. I’m leaving it to soak for another hour or so and will then begin my ‘rinse cycle’ Watch for videos in coming days.
Now Kevin warned me before I began that the biggest challenge I would face is time. But I wasn’t prepared for just how much time everything takes! When you have to heat all your hot water in a kettle and on the stove, because you can’t afford to run the tap, it adds a lot of time onto everyday activities. I live in a three-storey house. I’m getting better at taking my water bottle with me all over the house – it’s rather annoying to use the bathroom on the third floor only to find that my hand-washing bottle is on the main floor! But hey... at least I don’t have to walk ten kilometres a day to gather water from a contaminated well to bring back to my village for my family, as is the reality for many women in developing nations.
Now I’ve been carrying around a pledge form in my pocket to get friends on board at any given moment and last night I got to use it to garner some high profile pledges! I was having a drink in a bar with some friends when I noticed Saskatoon city councillor Darren Hill at a nearby table. I explained my water challenge and asked for him to pledge some water which he willingly did – before introducing me to MP Scott Brison from Nova Scotia who also pledged to save 25 litres of water per day for a month!
Along with these successes and high points, there have been a couple of low points. I’ve had a couple of unexpected water uses crop up – the most notable one being a little incident on Thursday morning. Somehow a pigeon got into my house during the night (I think down the chimney) and my cat evidently spent the night chasing it around the house. It was very strange to find a stunned pigeon under my bed when I woke up! Unfortunately my cats antics resulted in feathers everywhere and dried pigeon blood on the walls, floor and even ceiling :( Given that pigeons carry many diseases, I’ve had to use a good amount of hot water to clean up after this little fiasco. I am happy to report that after some recovery time outside (its been pretty mild here recently) the pigeon flew off to the south, hope he/she was okay...
So the challenge continues, stay tuned for the next instalment!
Alina
Banking up the Water Bucks
So Day Four is drawing to a close and I’m surprised at how easy it can be to use quite a bit less than 25 litres per day! I have a bit of a water bank that I can draw from which will be handy I am sure come laundry day!
Last night was my first experience with having to use public bathrooms and not flushing. My roomates and I went for dinner and then went to an open stage night at a local bar. I managed okay with the no flushing, and surprisingly was not challenged by any of the staff when heading towards the bathrooms with a Nalgene bottle full of handwashing water, that could just as easily have been vodka! However the bar was not overly busy, so never any people waiting to go into the stall after me – that will be a challenge for another night I am sure…. its a lot easier to let it mellow if you can disappear into the crowd before anyone knows its you!
The definate low point of the night was exiting a bathroom stall to find that the last person in the bathroom had left the tap running full blast. What is wrong with people??
So Day four, I have only used 8.6 litres today – I’ve discovered that one of the toilets at work uses only 3.7 litres if you quickly release the flush button! Awesome! There’s still a few dishes to wash, tooth brushing and perhaps a toilet flush left in tonight, so I’ll likely go a little over half my allotment. Saturday is laundry day!
Day 5, bring it on.
To listen to my CBC podcast, click here:
http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/pastpodcasts.html?36#ref36
To watch a video of me preparing for my sponge bath click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgTs1D_i1AY
Last night was my first experience with having to use public bathrooms and not flushing. My roomates and I went for dinner and then went to an open stage night at a local bar. I managed okay with the no flushing, and surprisingly was not challenged by any of the staff when heading towards the bathrooms with a Nalgene bottle full of handwashing water, that could just as easily have been vodka! However the bar was not overly busy, so never any people waiting to go into the stall after me – that will be a challenge for another night I am sure…. its a lot easier to let it mellow if you can disappear into the crowd before anyone knows its you!
The definate low point of the night was exiting a bathroom stall to find that the last person in the bathroom had left the tap running full blast. What is wrong with people??
So Day four, I have only used 8.6 litres today – I’ve discovered that one of the toilets at work uses only 3.7 litres if you quickly release the flush button! Awesome! There’s still a few dishes to wash, tooth brushing and perhaps a toilet flush left in tonight, so I’ll likely go a little over half my allotment. Saturday is laundry day!
Day 5, bring it on.
To listen to my CBC podcast, click here:
http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/pastpodcasts.html?36#ref36
To watch a video of me preparing for my sponge bath click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgTs1D_i1AY
I'd love to, but I have to stay in and wash my hair
…now I understand that old strange saying, which I always assumed was just an excuse not to do something you don’t want to do.
A good friend would like me to come and help him assess doing renovations in new house tonight, and I’ve just informed him that I can’t make it for another three hours – I have to do the dishes and wash my hair. Yes, I’m still ambitious at this point. I think give it another two weeks, and the hair-washing may be replaced by the increasing use of bandanas….
It’s Day Two of my 25-litre-per-day water conservation challenge and I’m quickly learning that everyday tasks take a lot more time than they did before. Almost 45 minutes for the dishes last night (guess that serves me right for burning lentils to the bottom of the pot). All this while watching my roommates load the dishwasher. Still somehow, I made it through the day using only 13 litres! So I have 12 banked for a not-so-rainy day.
Auto-pilot-turning-on-the-tap-incidents, Day One: Four
Auto-pilot-turning-on-the-tap-incidents, Day Two: One
I’m improving!
I’ve been keeping track of my water use by filling a 20 Litre tank at home every morning, and a 5 Litre jug at work, and drawing all my water from these two containers. This works well when I stick to it, but when I need to flush a toilet at work, or take into account the amount of water that went into my morning coffee, and then subtract that from my allotment in my head…..things get very confusing!
I’ve had a number of pledges already, and I encourage you to participate. The average Canadian uses 329 litres of water per day. That’s the equivalent of 82.25 big four-litre milk jugs! In comparison I’m using only 6.25 milk jugs per day! So I’m asking that for the next month, you pledge to cut at least 6 milk jugs off your 82, not too much to ask is it? That’s just a few toilet flushes, or a couple of minutes off your shower. Use the dishwater to flush your toilet. Cut out a load of laundry a week to save between 40 and 160 litres (depending on your washing machine of course…)
Pledge forms available here:
http://waterconservationchallenge.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/pledge-form/
Fill out and send it back to me at water@environmentalsociety.ca
Bring on day three.
Alina.
A good friend would like me to come and help him assess doing renovations in new house tonight, and I’ve just informed him that I can’t make it for another three hours – I have to do the dishes and wash my hair. Yes, I’m still ambitious at this point. I think give it another two weeks, and the hair-washing may be replaced by the increasing use of bandanas….
It’s Day Two of my 25-litre-per-day water conservation challenge and I’m quickly learning that everyday tasks take a lot more time than they did before. Almost 45 minutes for the dishes last night (guess that serves me right for burning lentils to the bottom of the pot). All this while watching my roommates load the dishwasher. Still somehow, I made it through the day using only 13 litres! So I have 12 banked for a not-so-rainy day.
Auto-pilot-turning-on-the-tap-incidents, Day One: Four
Auto-pilot-turning-on-the-tap-incidents, Day Two: One
I’m improving!
I’ve been keeping track of my water use by filling a 20 Litre tank at home every morning, and a 5 Litre jug at work, and drawing all my water from these two containers. This works well when I stick to it, but when I need to flush a toilet at work, or take into account the amount of water that went into my morning coffee, and then subtract that from my allotment in my head…..things get very confusing!
I’ve had a number of pledges already, and I encourage you to participate. The average Canadian uses 329 litres of water per day. That’s the equivalent of 82.25 big four-litre milk jugs! In comparison I’m using only 6.25 milk jugs per day! So I’m asking that for the next month, you pledge to cut at least 6 milk jugs off your 82, not too much to ask is it? That’s just a few toilet flushes, or a couple of minutes off your shower. Use the dishwater to flush your toilet. Cut out a load of laundry a week to save between 40 and 160 litres (depending on your washing machine of course…)
Pledge forms available here:
http://waterconservationchallenge.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/pledge-form/
Fill out and send it back to me at water@environmentalsociety.ca
Bring on day three.
Alina.
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