In 2018, news broke that Cape Town will be the first metropolitan city to reach Day Zero due to water crisis.
In fact, scientists have said that by 2040 most of the world will not have enough water to keep up with how we are using it daily. Seems impossible, right? Have you ever thought about water? I mean really thought about it.
It’s the biggest resource that humans take for granted, we don’t even realise it because it’s always just there. It seems as natural as breathing that when you turn on the tap, fresh water will run.
But could you imagine living so that the lack of fresh water is constantly on your mind? Let me paint a picture.
You wake up in the morning and instead of jumping in the shower you put on your clothes and walk (because when your city will have reached water crisis then you probably can’t afford petrol either) to the dispense station set up in your city, wait in line probably for hours and fill your containers with the allowance of fresh water and carry them back home. Now, are you still gonna have that 30 minute hot shower? I don’t think so. You probably got 20 liters which was all you could carry for the day. How long is that going to last?
Did you know that an average shower of 8.2 minutes takes 65 liters (17 gallons) of water? And a 30 minute shower washes an astonishing 284 LITERS (!!!) or 75 GALLONS of perfectly fresh drinking water down the drain??! This statistic makes me feel sick. It makes me tear up actually when I realise that this amount of water would provide up to 10 days of life to a person living in an underdeveloped country. To make matters worse if you are an American then YOUR daily shower costs an African 15 days of fresh water.
water-for-africa.org
” The UN say that a human being needs 50 litres of water per day in order to prepare meals and to have enough for personal hygiene. 50 litres of water per day are necessary in order to avoid diseases and to retain efficiency.
However, many humans in Africa must get along with 20 litres water per day. That is the quantity of water that we use when having a shower for 1,5 minutes.
In Germany, the water consumption per person amounts to 121 litres water per day. About 1/3 is for toilet-flushing, 1/3 for body hygiene and another third for laundering, washing the dishes, cooking and drinking. For cooking and drinking, we need about 5 litres per day. “
So why do we think that we are so privileged that we can leave the water running while brushing our teeth (24 liters/6.3 gallons of water which is more than millions of people around the world get in a day!), sit and ponder in the shower for half an hour every day or washing our cars with fresh water?
It’s feared that within the next few decades other cities like Melbourne, Mexico City, Barcelona, Tokyo, London and many many more will face their own Day Zero if drastic measures are not undertaken now.
Hopefully I have injected you with some perspective regarding this travesty and you will get off the privilege train and start taking (even slow) steps towards being sustainable with the fresh water that you luckily still have free access to.
So what can YOU do to save the world’s water?
- Cut down the time you spend in the shower. If you’re stressed or need to relax in hot water, take a bath – it uses less water. Or meditate…
- You can even collect your shower water if you have a bath and then use it to soak your delicates (what a great way to save water!)
- Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth. Full stop. There is no excuse for that.
- Keep a glass next to your basin and use it to wet your toothbrush in when you start brushing. You can also rinse your brush there and fill the glass again to sip and rinse your mouth. You know, like in the old days.
- If you need to wait for the hot (or in some cases the cold) water to come on then chuck a saucepan, a bowl, the kettle or a watering can under the tap so you can use the “wasted” clean water for cooking or watering the plants.
- There are screw-on filters that you can buy for your tap that dispense less water per minute.
- And an unpopular opinion – if you live alone or with your own family, don’t flush every time you pee. There really is no need for it, we do it out of habit.
