LIFE ON WATER
FIVE EASY WAYS TO USE LESS WATER AT HOME – AND NOT JUST IN A DROUGHT
With so much of the world suffering from drought, you might think your ability to help is minimal. But when you consider the average person in the UK uses around 142 litres of water a day, it’s easy to see how small changes to your routine can add up.
More than half of the water that is extracted from rivers, streams and aquifers in the UK feeds the public water supply. These abstractions, as they’re called, worsen drought conditions by draining local waterways, depriving vegetation, fish and other aquatic life of the water they need to survive droughts.
Filling paddling pools to cool off, taking multiple showers each day to stay clean, watering the garden to revive wilting plants – all these extra activities contribute to a sharp increase in public water use on hot and dry days. And these impacts can endure for months, as freshwater systems need a lot of additional rainfall to recover from droughts.
If each person can reduce their water use during a drought, it would significantly benefit the natural world in its recovery. Here are five things you can do, starting today.
1. Shower less
Most of the water you use is in the shower. For every minute you’re under the shower head (depending on how powerful it is), around 10 litres of water drains away. Since most people shower for an average of seven minutes, half of your daily water use takes place first thing in the morning.
“For each minute you shave off your shower time, you save 10 litres of water. (lightpoet/Shutterstock)”
Turning off the shower while shampooing your hair or applying shower gel can help conserve water, as can shortening the length of your shower overall. Be sure not to switch to a bath though the average soak in the tub uses around 80 litres of water.
2. Use rainwater in the garden
Water butts can be purchased in garden centres. Robert Hackett/Shutterstock
During a dry spell, the average gardener can use hundreds of litres of water to keep their plants hydrated. Some people will use a watering can (good), others might leave a sprinkler on all day (bad). Most use drinking water, which is a waste – plants are happy with rain water.
Add a water butt that collects the rain which falls on your roof and use it for the garden. To find out how to install one, watch this.
3. Use the short flush
Per flush, your toilet uses about 5 litres of water, and up to 10 litres in older models. If available, use the short flush to significantly reduce how much water is wasted.
4. Cut back on car washing
If you need to wash your car, do it the old-fashioned way with a bucket and soap rather than hosing it down. The water contained in a bucket (roughly 30 litres) is significantly less than the average that flows through a hose (around 15 litres per minute). Better yet, avoid washing your car entirely during a drought.
5. Reuse water
If you’re washing vegetables, you could collect the water in a bowl in the sink and later give it to the plants in your house or outside. While you’re waiting for warm water to come out of a tap, use the cold to fill the kettle. Close the tap while you’re lathering your hands with soap or brushing your teeth. Though these are only small savings, they do make a difference over time,
Inflatable pools are lovely for cooling down on the hottest days. A cleaning pump can filter the water and recycle it without you needing to use more water to keep the pool clean.
“Pool filters can clean and recycle water without the need for additional cleaning. (Daniele COSSU/Shutterstock)”
SAVE WATER, SAVE MONEY
All these tips can significantly reduce your water use and combat the effects of drought on the environment. They can also save you money.
If you’re able to renovate your home, it’s worth installing a system for collecting rainwater which, combined with a pump, can flush toilets. In Belgium, for example, it is common practice to have such a system installed (effectively, a large underground water butt.)
Most people would struggle to afford these kinds of measures, and so drought proofing homes and communities should be part of the effort to adapt countries to the extreme weather expected in a rapidly warming world.
REASON WHY WASTING WATER IS BAD
There are anthropocentric, biocentric, and ecocentric reasons why wasting water is bad.
Anthropocentrically, fresh water is a vital resource for the survival of our population. Seeing as less than 1% of the world’s water is freshwater and available for us to consume (not trapped in glaciers), there are limitations that factor into our carrying capacity as a population on Earth including the availability and distribution of freshwater.
Different countries are endowed with different stocks of freshwater, and depending on their replenishment rate and usage rate, each has varying degrees of water scarcity that needs to be addressed. Below is a map by World Resources Institute that outlines the water stress by country, with 36 countries displaying an “Extremely High Stress (>80%),” which means that “more than 80 percent of the water available to agricultural, domestic and industrial users is withdrawn annually—leaving businesses, farms and communities vulnerable to scarcity”
Therefore, wasting water in a country where it may appear water just magically comes out of the tap don’t even have clean, safe access to.
Furthermore, in places where clean water is scarce, overusing or wasting household water limits the availability of it for other communities to use for drinking, cleaning, cooking or growing—and thus contributes to disease, illness or agricultural scarcity/starvation.
You could tack on the economic incentive to save water as it means lower household water utility bills, one of the largest incentives for water-wise individuals or households to conserve water.
Biocentrically, other species rely on freshwater besides humans as a vital component to their survival! Overuse of freshwater in household settings means there is less fresh water for agricultural use (which affects humans on an food scarcity level), but many livestock species rely on freshwater.
Also, as we divert more freshwater from aquatic environments to supplement agriculturally, many plant and animal species are threatened or can become endangered. Despite our attempts to separate man from nature, we are indeed part of one ecosystem (the biosphere), and reliant on plants and animals; therefore sharing and properly managing our most precious resource is crucial.
Ecocentrically, wasting water while our demand for water increases (as population and standards of living increase globally), means that we need to supplement for this lack of freshwater by pulling it out of aquifers or groundwater supplies in which their regeneration rate is lower than the extraction rate. This unsustainable practice decreases long term water security and availability.
Furthermore, and almost most importantly, water takes a lot of energy, time and money to filter and clean so that it’s drinkable. Wasting water or overusing household water means you’re wasting the energy-intensive process of filtration. The many steps of this process—extraction, transportation, filtration, etc.—require non-renewable fossil fuels and as these resources become depleted, their dangerous by-products such as carbon dioxide build up in the Earth’s atmosphere, contributing to your carbon footprint and the Earth’s rising temperatures.
BENEFITS OF CONSERVING WATER
If you save water it can save your money bills.
Reduction in interior water use cuts wastewater flows, especially overflowing of gutters which contaminates the environment.
Environment benefits include ecosystem and habitat protection.
Water conservation helps in improving the quality of your drinking water
Saves money
Protects drinking water resources
Minimizes water pollution and health risks
Reduces the need for costly water supply and new wastewater treatment facilities
Maintains the health of aquatic environments
Saves energy used to pump, heat, and treat water