Save the Last Drop

MMMmm…..good morning world! Can’t wait to grab a housecoat and head for a nice steamy…..bucket-bath? Before I tell you about an experience that has left me feeling cleaner than the day I was born (post-birth cleanup) let me first make a somber dedication of this weeks article to the 25,000 people who died yesterday and will die by the end of today due to waterborne illnesses or dehydration. I’m not an expert on water sanitation but I don’t think you need to be to sympathize with the fact that we have it and 1 billion people on the planet don’t.

This past week I took a challenge to live out my daily routine while limiting my water consumption to that of the average citizen in a developing country. What was most striking was not the difficulty in achieving this task but how obviously wasteful and glutinous it all seemed. Although research varied, the average person in a developing country uses only 12 gallons of water per day whereas the average North American uses a striking 160 gallons. That’s more than 10 times the amount of water!

The most wasteful of all: the shower. Every minute in a shower uses 5 gallons of water, so in an average 15-minute shower you have already used 6 times the water of our less-fortunate brothers and sisters without even having a sip. The challenge of having a shower in 2.5 minutes and risking the chances of dehydration for a week seemed unmanageable so I took to a bucket and sponge and was able to use a mere 2 liters (just under half a gallon) for a full body rub down. Minus the cool breeze of an open room the experience left me feeling pampered and cleaner than I’d ever felt.

When it came to the toilet I was able to follow the ‘if it’s yellow, let it mellow’ rule and saved 3 gallons of water every time I chose not to flush with the exception of an automatic flush at Laurier that I couldn’t control. Thanks for taking ¾ of my daily supply! As the days went on, sponge in one hand measuring cup in the other I began to wonder just how it was that they managed to use 12 gallons a day when I was sitting at about 2. Then it hit me like a World Politics class with Bill Moul, I WAS using 12 gallons of water…but it wasn’t mine. Let me provide the following for a direct and dramatic explanation:

14 gallons of water is necessary to produce one orange
20 gallons for 2 slices of bread
25 gallons for one serving of rice
And for my omnivorous friends: 5,000 gallons for a pound of beef

There is a trend that has started to emerge from these weekly challenges and it isn’t helping to decrease my overbearing guilt. Everything I was eating had an attached water usage that I didn’t have to pay for and far exceeded my allotted water usage for the week. Continuing to connect the dots revealed an even dirtier truth; my food is grown in a country where the people don’t have their own access to clean water, have very minimal water in general to start with and are starving while they toil and slave to produce something for me to eat. Bucket baths, unflushed toilets, washing my hair with baby powder and washing essential clothing by hand still left me feeling worlds away from the issue.

We can’t create more water but what we can do is change the way we use it. We are not immune to water scarcity threats although the way we live our lives would reflect otherwise. With the influence of climate change, varying geographic locations all over the world are going to be facing issues of water shortages, including our neighbours to the south. For our already struggling who are living out of sight, lets keep them in mind when we turn on the tap – because we have that luxury.

For information on global issues of water use and ways to save water check out:
Water.org: http://water.org/
Water Use it Wisely: http://wateruseitwisely.com/
UN Water http://www.unwater.org