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.
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