If Water Is Life

If water is life, water conservation must be our way of life. Water is one of the greatest necessities to us, as without it we can not live. So we must protect and prevent it from being wasted and/or overused. The three main ways to save water are reduce, reuse and recycle.

Reducing is not to use water to a ridiculous extent. Places we can save water are in the house, garden and with our agriculture and horticulture.

In the house the main areas we can save water are; the kitchen, laundry, bathroom and leaks. The kitchen uses about 10% of total household water consumption for cooking, washing and drinking. The dishwasher is the highest consumer of water in the kitchen. Make sure your dishwasher has a high energy efficiency level because 10,000 litres can be saved a week. In the laundry about 15-20% of water is consumed. In a similar manner the washing machine must be efficient. The bathroom, toilet and bath use nearly 40% of all the water in the house and is by far where water is mostly wasted. A showerhead is as simple as it gets for saving water in the bathroom. Approximately 9 litres a minute can be saved with the right showerhead. and in 3rd world countries to save water they do not always flush the toilet to save water, lets hope we don't have to get to that stage. in fact a 4 stars caroma toilet can save an average of 35,000 litres a yea. leaks seem like such a microscopic problem but a slowly leaking tap can waste up to 20,000 litres a year!

Saving water in the garden is even simple, instead of buying plants that require lots of water to manage buy plants appropriate to the conditions of where you live. Also growing the right plants at the correct time of year and in the correct climate is crucial. Lastly the amount of times we water our plants per week. Instead of watering our garden everyday water the garden 3 times a week, and at dawn or dusk not in the middle of the day when evaporation will receive about 50% of the water.

To save water in agriculture it is to the same effect instead of washing animals everyday water them with gaps in between the days. Also if your gonna clean your animals don't let them roll around in the mud so they will need another wash wasting more money. With our horticulture have our fruit and vegetables covered this way the water will keep the food moist instead of dry and same goes for not watering our horticulture unless we must.

Recycled or reclaimed waste is former sewage that has been treated to remove solids and certain impurities and then allowed to recharge the aquifier rather than being discharged to surface water. Benefits of reclaimed water can be re sold to poorer countries also at a cheaper price to encourage its use. even though its not normally suitable of drinking countries that have no water will take any water they can get, which means money for us that can be put towards building more water tanks so we can recover more grey water.

The aim of water reuse is to reuse all the water from effluent water treatment, including water from the hydraulic barrier. Benefits of water reuse include minimising the necessity of using dam or well water. Using grey water to water the plants fill the pool or for the washing machine. A simple way to reuse water is with little children use the same water.

Water is about how much we use and about how much we save it is what we re dependant on more than anything so next time you go to empty out a bottle of water or leave a tap running think about our future our kids' future and if not think of the less fortunate without water and how lucky we are to have it, so lets use it with precaution.

Written by : Emanuele Sipione ( free2@itcgbianchi.it )