By Fredrica Syren:
Along with other signs of global warming — rising temperatures and years of drought — there is now limited water left left in California. As of April 1st, due to this severe water shortage, there is a mandatory water restriction. Unfortunately, California is not alone with this problem, as many parts of the West and Southwest of the U.S. are experiencing severe droughts. As well, other parts of the world like Brazil, Iran and United Arab Emirates are encountering the same situation.
Of course, fighting and working to reverse global warming is super important, but so is reducing our own water use. Here are some ideas what we can act upon to help.
- Let your lawn turn brown—Nothing is more sad than a brown, dead, dry garden…except, well, no water at all. So, as hard as it is to stop watering your lawn, it’s a must. Maybe this is great time to replace your lawn with something that requires less water. As a matter of fact, you can save as much as 70 gallons of water per week by replacing grass with artificial turf or heat-tolerant landscaping such as rocks and cacti.
- Harvest rainwater—I know that if it does not rain often, to suggest harvesting rainwater sounds strange, but believe me those few times it rains really can fill up a rain barrel. And that water can be used for so much. Actually, in L.A., one thousand rain barrels donated by the Coca-Cola Company to Keep Los Angeles Beautiful will be handed out in an effort to preserve rainwater.
- Install a grey water system—Grey water systems save water by collecting water from the showers, sinks and washing machines, then clean it up and pump it back into the toilet, washing machine, and to an outside tap so it can be used for watering a garden, too. Use of grey water can actually reduce water usage by 50% or so.
- Skip baths and take shorter showers—I for sure enjoy relaxing in a hot bath or, at the very least, a nice long shower. But no more! Shorter showers are the right way to go when saving water because for each minute in the shower there is another five gallons of water down the drain. One good way to conserve is to install a low flow shower head: it costs only about $5 but can save about 2 gallons of water per minute. Compared to a standard shower head, a family of four can save approximately 20,000 gallons of water per year.
- Skip soda and beer—I know I’m talking about reducing our water usage, but drinking only water is still a better option compared to drinking beer and sodas: 20 gallons of water go into making one pint of beer, and roughly two glasses of water go into that glass of soda.
- Use a dishwashing machine instead of hand washing—One thing that I learned — which surprised me — is that you actually save more water by using a dishwasher instead of washing dishes by hand. If you don’t have a dishwasher, your best way to conserve water is by soaking and washing dishes in a basin filled with water. You might be tempted to use disposable plates in an effort to save water, but it’s a sad fact that it takes loads of water to produce disposable plates, cups and cutlery.
Please share your best water conservation tips!!!
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