Simply Thrifty

Water, Water Everywhere…

by Deborah Ng on October 15th, 2007

It’s Blog Action Day, so let’s talk about water. For most of us, it’s so abundant we take it for granted. We have water when we flush, water when we brush and water when we wash the dishes. We use water for our pools and lawns and water slides. We have water balloon fights and dunking tanks and not too many of us give a second thought to where our water comes from or what we need to do to keep it clean.

When I was a young girl, my father and I were in a canoe together on a lake in the Adirondacks. Another family of canoers were in the water at the time and one of the parents took a plastic lunch bag filled with garbage and tossed in the water. Dad canoed over to the bobbing plastic bag and put it in our canoe. “This really burns me up,” he said loud enough for the other family to hear. “People need to think about what they’re doing. What if birds or fish try to eat these bags? The plastic will cause them to suffocate. What if this was a reservoir for drinking, would you want to drink water that came from a dumping ground? When people throw garbage in the water, they ruin it for the rest of the world.” I never forgot it.

That was more than 30 years ago. Nowadays we’re aware of the dangers of pollution, but I wonder if many of us still consider how much water we waste every time we brush our teeth or let the faucet run until the water is chilly enough for drinking.

When I was a teenager, New Jersey was in the throes of a major drought and we were all encouraged to save water. My Mom showed us how to brush our teeth using a half cup of water each. She encouraged us to not flush unless we have to. “If it’s yellow let it mellow,” she told us. “If it’s brown flush it down.” Sorry for the visual. Mom and Dad were always pretty aware of the environment, but back then, not too many families gave it much consideration. Why do we have to wait for a crisis before we decide it’s in our best interests to save water and keep it clean?

It saves money, not to mention water, to practice some simple conservation tips:

• Don’t run lawn sprinklers. I know the trend is to have a beautiful lawn but it’s so wasteful. Our lawn looks ok and we haven’t had rain in weeks. Lots of families are making the move to eliminate the front lawn altogether and instead plant veggies or hardy flowers. Other families are landscaping with stone or putting soccer nets and swingsets out in front..
• Don’t let the water run while you brush your teeth. Really, this is a no brainer.
• Take shorter showers. All you need to do is lather up and rinse off, how long does that take?
• Use rainwater to water plants, the car and other items.
• Reuse your veggie water.
• Don’t flush unless you have to.
• Fill a bottle of water and use that for drinking instead of letting the faucet run for cold water.
• Two words: Gray water.

These are simple things we can do. Perhaps if one person does this it won’t do much good, but if we all do our part to conserve water, we’ll make a heck of a difference.

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POSTED IN: Eco Simplicity, Reusing and Recycling