Overthrown presidents, wars, death, and national emergencies—it might seem strange that these drastic outcomes could be due to something as basic as water. But because economies and lives depend on this fundamental liquid, its shortage is nothing to be glib about. And as population increases and more people move into water-intensive lifestyles, water restrictions are something we’re likely to be seeing more of in the future.
Droughts, development, pollution, and wasteful usage are major factors in local and global water shortages, and are seemingly intractable problems for an individual to solve. Yet the United States uses more water per capita than any other country, so we can make a difference. As the saying goes, think globally, act locally. Whether we live in chronically water-short states or those that are flush with it, there are some basic things we can do to conserve and help us minimize our water consumption.
What to Do in the Loo?
A lot of indoor water use occurs in the bathroom—showering, flushing, brushing, etc. One of the first places to start conserving is the toilet. While most of us will have to wait for composting toilets and those that separate out solids from liquids to be reused (all in the works for the future), we can install a low-flow toilet and save large amounts of water, especially if you’re replacing an old, large-tank toilet. However, there is a simpler, cheaper (even free) method: displacement. By placing a brick, a plastic bag filled with water (sometimes called toilet tummies), or anything that takes up space inside the tank it will reduce the amount of water per flush. I ordered a free toilet tummy from my municipal district; check to see if yours subsidizes them, too.
The truly stringent can implement the mantra I learned as a child during water-strapped summers in Northern California—if it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down.
You can also conserve by fixing toilet leaks, which can waste up to 7,000 gallons a month. A simple way to detect whether or not you have a leak is to put a few drops of food coloring in the toilet tank and wait fifteen to twenty minutes. If you see the coloring in the toilet bowl, you’ve got a leak.
