Perth V12: On Water
Any Singaporean knows that water is precious. 'LET'S NOT WASTE PRECIOUS WATER!' the numerous campaigns screamed at us from TV, radio, and posters in our school bathrooms. We were NOT to leave the taps running and were not allowed to leave the shower running while washing our hair. My chinese teacher (Mrs Su) told us that she used to clean her shower and bath with bleach, and then perform the final rinse of the bath during her own shower, hence maximising the use of her shower water.
I never forgot those water lessons.
When i moved to the UK, i was amazed at the profligate water wastage. People left taps running in public bathrooms (especially when drunk in the nightclubs). I pounced on the taps and turned them off in front of their noses! People left the taps running when shaving or brushing their teeth! They had sex in the shower! They were not even standing under the water! GAAH!!! The worst offence that even i was guilty of? The fact that i had to run my shower for 30 seconds before it warmed up enough for me to stand under it.
I continued my water saving ways but was a little bit more relaxed. In Scotland, we were drowning in water. The summer shortages in the south east were not relevant in Scotland. Scotland was the land of plenty and it provided water, oil, salmon and Aberdeen Angus beef to the starving southerners. The only environmental impact of wasting water up north was the power used to filter, pump and clean the water to potable quality (not insubstantial, I might add).
We're back to our water savings way now that we're in Australia. When we moved into our new place, there was no hot water. I had to boil a kettle full of water and fill a bucket, and then wash with it. A good shower required one bucket of water.
I realised how much water i wasted when the hot water came back and we had to run the shower for a while before it got hot. It took half a bucket of water to get hot. I collected the water and used it to water the plants. I did that for a while, until i consulted my colleagues about what they did with their buckets of water.
Yes my friends, Australians collect buckets of water in their showers. Lots of people do it. With water usage rates about $500 a quarter, who wouldn't want to save a couple hundred bucks by being water wise? Not only that, it's not embarrassing to be water conscious, and those who do NOT save water all feel guilty about it and say things like 'You're so good with the water! I should do that too!'
Most people i interviewed used their shower buckets to water their plants, however, another colleague uses his shower bucket to fill up the cisterns in the family toilet.
I have experimented with that idea. I turned off the tap of the loo and popped open the cistern. Very clean! Good!
Did you know that it takes a whole bucket of water to have a full flush! I'm shocked! That's a whole shower's worth of water to flush the loo. For all those houses without dual flush systems, it's a lot of water for nothing.
Now that i've got a new house, there is a chance to put in some water wise measures in. There are a few grey water systems that recycle your shower and laundry water in your loo and reticulation (read: garden sprinkler) system. To be honest, i don't want to put any shower or laundry water into my garden. I have evil chemicals in my hair and oxy action in my laundry. I'm happy about popping them into the loo though, but since we both work there isn't a lot of toilet flushing action in the household.
Rainwater collection, on the other hand, is a concept that sings and sings and sings. Rainwater is clean and yummy and not full of acid because we do not live in Europe. I want to collect rainwater and water my plants with it. I want to use rainwater to fill up my spa (once i build it). I want to remove the guilt that comes from growing a lawn in the desert.
That said, what on earth would i do with my shower bucket? Well - if i build my rainwater collection system correctly, i could fling my shower bucket onto the roof and it will flow into my rainwater collection butt. Or i could continue to fill up my toilet cistern with the shower water.
Decisions decisions.
Posted via LiveJournal.app.