By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
We don’t want to let World Water Day slip away without a few reminders to use less of this precious resource.
I will be the first to say, it’s not always easy. When we almost lost a maple tree a few years ago, we dumped water on the thing nearly every day to help nurse it through a crackly dry August. Just last night, I drew half a tub of water for a child, only to discover that we hadn’t cleaned the tub since its last use as a doggie wash. Eeee! We believe in water conservation, but we really like clean kids too. And this was just one day, I won’t even get into the time I forgot to turn the veggie garden soaker hose off…Though I can atone for that one with the water barrel that usually feeds that garden.
Now that I’ve confessed my water sins, I will tell you a few ways I’ve cut down on water use.
Bayes Waterless Car Wash
First, I’ve become a great fan of the waterless car wash products. I’ve tried a couple that do a terrific job of cleaning the car’s exterior without using a drop of water beyond whatever’s in the bottle of solution. My favorite is the Bayes brand Waterless Car Wash. Eco Touch is another brand to look for. And importantly, most of these products are eco-friendly, so you can still employ child labor to clean the car. It’s win-win!
I also use the bucket in the shower technique. You’ll see this on various lists of water saving tips. It bubbled up today on this blog item from the NRDC. Because I use unscented, “green” soaps I’m able to use recaptured shower water on flower beds and house plants. Buckets in showers aren’t so attractive, so I found a white plastic waste basket that blends in, mostly. A tip here: Look for one with handles.
A couple more ways to save water simply involve resetting your household routine to be more water-friendly:
- Use the shortest cycles possible (for the load) on the washing machine and on the dishwasher. (Those plates come out quite clean after the economy wash cycle – you might be surprised.)
- Put inexpensive aerators on your faucets. These reduce the water being delivered, without any noticeable difference in water pressure. Low-flow shower heads, it goes without saying.
- If you live in a house, a really big area for water savings is the yard. There are several things you can do to curb water use outside. You can plant native plants, which after an initial year with regular watering, generally need only natural rainfall. You can install drip-line irrigation in gardens, which is more efficient, as you might imagine, than a sprinkler system that blasts water into the air – where much of it evaporates in the sun.
- You can cut down on turf by creating native plant beds or rock features, Unless you have native grass, your lawn may be your biggest water drain. It could even account for 50 percent of your water use. Non-native grasses tend to need constant watering and fertilizing and weeding. Switching the yard to native grasses is one answer, but it can be costly and difficult; cutting out some of the turf for a stand of shrubs or trees can be a carbon-cutting, water-saving solution.
A final thought: There are ways to save water that are hidden beneath the surface. For instance, if you reduce or eliminate the use of harsh, chemical pesticides that cause toxic run off into storm sewers, you are helping to keep water systems cleaner and thereby conserving in ways you may not have realized. And if you reduce your consumption of meat, you are voting for water conservation. Conventional livestock production in which irrigated row crops like corn are grown exclusively to feed livestock is among the most water-hoggish enterprises. (And it’s old news, see this 2006 government report on the impacts of modern food production.)
Furthermore, CAFOs (Confined Agriculture Food Organizaitons) contribute to water pollution, from leaking manure containment areas to those fertilized corn fields that sent pesticides into rivers. We can’t change all that ourselves, but we can buy meat from pastured livestock and organic produce.
For now I’ll spare you the doom-and-gloom water statistics that project some of our major aquifers could be depleted within decades. Just keep conserving. To read more, please see our recent story What You Need to Know: Home Water Conservation. World Water Day was created by the United Nations.
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