International Water Day

How much water do you use in a day? That question has been on my mind ever since I posted that little National Geo video about the typical human being (Sunday, I think it was). When I woke up this morning, the radio host announced that it's International Water Day... so perhaps now is a good time to moodle about water issues.

Ever since Lee and I attended a workshop on Water and Sustainability at an Ideas Symposium a few years back, I've been trying to cut back on my personal water usage. I used to shower every day, but now it's every other day (or longer, and my skin has never been healthier, go figure). As a family, we've adopted the "If it's yellow, let it mellow..." rule in the bathroom (except when guests are present). Our dishwasher never operates unless it's full, we've got low-flush toilets, low-flow showerheads, and a front load washer that uses so little water (in comparison with the old top-load kind) it amazes me. Our kids know better than to leave the water running while brushing their teeth, and we've seen a general decrease in our water usage bills over time. Outdoors, we use rain barrel water most of the time and our lawn doesn't get watered (we're in the process of getting rid of it altogether), but our vegetables do.

Even with all these water conservation strategies, I'm still thinking about those women of Ethiopia in the National Geo video who use 2.5 litres of water per day, and spend 8 hours gathering it. I suspect some of us use that much to wash our faces in the morning, without considering the fact that water shortages in various places around the globe mean a lot of our brothers and sisters have to struggle to survive. In some cases, those brothers and sisters live where there is plenty of water... but big beverage companies have bought water "rights" out from under them so that we in the developed world can drink exotic bottled water.

A few years ago, Development and Peace (see Favourite Links on the sidebar) made water rights one of its main causes. During Lent, there was a big campaign to try to bring awareness of water issues to the public, and to discourage the drinking of bottled water. They gave out these lovely little "Bottled Water Free Zone" window stickers to people who committed themselves to not using those too-handy convenience store items. If you really think about it, it's silly to pay more for a litre of water than we do for a litre of gas... And do you remember the scandal when it was discovered that the Dasani brand of bottled actually came from taps in Calgary?

Unfortunately, a lot of people are willing to pay for the convenience of water at your fingertips (or in a flat in the trunk of your car), but I'm not. My youngest daughter learned a while back that either she goes thirsty or she packs her own water bottle when we go out, because Mom will not break down and buy one no matter how much whining occurs. I just can't, especially when I think about what it would feel like to have to walk long distances to get water for cooking, cleaning and washing because some bottled water baron won't let you have access to your local stream, and when I consider the mountains of plastic bottles that people buy and toss. True, in many places there are wonderful recycling facilities, but wouldn't it make more sense to fill a reusable water bottle at home or elsewhere instead of using more energy turning plastic bottles into plastic lumber, staticky polar fleece clothing, and whatever other usages they've invented? (The overuse of plastic polymers in a world that is running out of fossil fuels is another moodling topic for another day.)

I could go on and on, but the point is that many of the world's water resources have been polluted or overused, they're not turning out to be as renewable as we imagined, and with almost seven billion of us on the planet, it wouldn't hurt to use a lot less (not just water -- a lot less of everything). With our glaciers melting at an alarming rate, not to mention the steady disappearance of our polar icecaps and the weather changes that is causing, we need to reexamine our relationship with water. This morning, the radio station I wake up to aired a story about a woman who is taking a challenge to live on a very little water...  30 litres, if I was actually awake when I heard that story. If I can find a podcast link, I'll post it. In the meantime, I think I'll shorten my showers and look for other ways to conserve. I haven't given much thought to grey water usage yet...

(10: 30 p.m. Didn't find the podcast, but here's a link to another fellow who just completed the 25 litre challenge. http://ontario.sierraclub.ca/en/blog/73 James Hutt is a member of the Sierra Club in Ontario who can tell you a lot about water issues and the need to conserve a pretty precious natural resource from an environmental perspective. For me, it's also an issue of using less to be in solidarity with those who have less.)