Water conservation. How can I help?

At least 70% of earth’s surface is water; our body is also 70% water. Water is a major component of most living and non-living elements of the planet. These facts might make you believe that water is abundant and may never be scarce. However, the truth is that only about 3% of all the water in the planet can be used and drunk, as more than 97% is salt water. In fact, only less than 1% of the total is accessible, as most of this freshwater is trapped in glaciers and snowfields. To aggravate the issue, the Earth is a closed system, meaning that the same amount of water has existed for billions of years and if we contaminate this water, the amount of freshwater available will only reduce.

I guess this is enough to show us that water conservation is urgent! There are simple measures you can take in your home to help on this job and some others that require a little more effort from your part. To start, we have made a list of classified tasks and we recommend you do two or three tasks at a time until you get used to them before adding another one. Habits may be very hard to change but if you start slow and keep consistency, you can achieve it!

Simple tasks:

– Check your home for plumbing leaks. Check if toilet flushes and faucets are leaking and check if your water consumption is coherent with your use. If you suspect there’s an invisible leakage, you can hire a plumber to test your water system.

– Take shorter showers and avoid baths. First, count the time you and your family spend in the shower. This can even turn into a game with your kids and teens. Challenge yourselves to reduce the time every day or week. You can use a song you like to mark the time, just hurry up when you hear the music is ending!

– Turn off your tap while brushing your teeth and rubbing soap on your face and hands.

– Soak your dishes in the kitchen sink before washing them, so cleaning them will be faster and waste less running water.

– Use your washing machine in eco or quick cycle mode.

– Do not flush your rubbish. Flushing requires a lot of water and if you use it every time you need to throw away a simple thing like nail cut, hair and cigarette butts, you are just wasting water for nothing. Rubbish goes in the bin.

– Water your plants early in the morning or at night, so water will not rapidly evaporate and will be available for longer periods for your loved green ones.

Middle effort tasks:

– Do less laundry by changing clothes less often. Reserve a set of clothes to wear at home for more than one day and another for “dirty” activities like painting and dyeing your hair. In addition, you do not need to clean some clothing pieces, like jeans, skirts and jackets every time you use them.

– Adapt your toilet to low flush. You can do this by inserting a bottle full of sand or rocks in the flush tank or buying a dual flush device to install on your toilet. The dual flush is probably the best idea as it may be difficult to alternate the volume flow with the bottle.

– Install water-efficient fixtures such as low flow taps and showers to reduce water use.

– Reuse water used to cook vegetables and pasta and collect rain to water your plants, flush the toilet and soak your dishes before washing. If you use biodegradable soap, you can use much of the used water on your kitchen and laundry to water your garden.

– Plant species that require less water, like native species that are already adapted to the humidity level available throughout the year. Use mulch to retain moisture longer if necessary.

– Industry is by far the agent that consumes more water. As an example, to produce a simple T-shirt, industry uses more than 2,000 litters of water! So reduce your consumption of industrialized products, like clothes, processed food and soft drinks. Also, avoid plastic plates, bags and other disposable items.

Remember water is limited and a very precious source of life; reuse and preserve it. It also costs you money! We hope these tips are helpful to you. Do you have any more tips? Please share on the comments below. What are you doing to Green it yourself Now?!

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