Earth and soul | Simple daily habits that can help save water

Our human body is 71 per cent of water which is roughly the same percentage of water the earth is made up of. Well, the fact is that  less than 1 percent of the earth’s water is usable to us ! The rest of the water is stored in the sea, frozen in ice caps and floating around in the atmosphere. Out of the freshwater available for human use, a  massive 70 per cent goes toward growing food and raising animals .

Therefore, there is only a limited amount of freshwater available for other purposes. The main uses of water in houses are for drinking, bathing, kitchen-use, wash-basins, washing clothes and other miscellaneous purposes. Owing to overuse and misuse of water, it is becoming a scarce commodity. We have to save water for our own survival, for future generations and for the survival of the planet. Following are some of the simplest yet effective habits to save water:

Reuse water of RO

Nowadays, most households have RO systems or water purifiers for drinking water. You will be surprised to know that for each litre of drinking water, three litres of water is wasted! So if a typical family is having 30 litres of drinking water per day, then they are wasting 90 litres of water per day which is 32,850 litres of water per year. This whole water is wasted. You can make a habit of using this waste water for washing clothes, gardening, washing utensils, in the washroom, wet mopping the house, cleaning vegetables, etc.

Save water in washroom

As per one study, per capita per day consumption of water in India is 165 litres. Out of this, we use 27 per cent water for bathing, 20 percent for flushing, 9 per cent for basin, 21 per cent for cleaning utensils, 18 per cent for washing clothes and 4 per cent for other small works. Most of the water is wasted when you keep the tap running. You can adopt simple steps like turning off the water while you brush your teeth.

The other step you can do in saving water is to use glass or bowl for shaving or brushing teeth. Do remember to turn off water when you are applying showergel over your body. You can take shorter showers to save water. Alternatively, you can use buckets instead of showers as it minimizes wastage of water. You can have a two-knob flush system in your bathrooms. One knob is getting a low flow flush toilet for the urinal and the other is for flushing. These types of flush valves can easily be retrofitted in an existing toilet, and will save you a lot of water going down the drain.

Fix a leakage

Much water is wasted in leakages. One poorly connected piece of pipe in your home could result in waste water from toilets, taps, showers and washing machines flowing into rivers and seas. Fixing one simple tap can help you save you thousands litres of water and save the environment.

As per one study, if your  sink  or  bathtub  faucets leak one drip per second you’ll waste more than 11,356 litres per year. You could take 180 showers with all that water! If you fix easily-repairable household leaks, it can save you approximately 10 per cent on your water bill. You may not know the exact spot of leakage. However, the best way to find a leakage is to see your weekly water use and if you are not using your water much and the water tank is emptying, it is a sure sign of leakage.

If you are unable to find a hidden leakage, stop all the taps for 2-3 hours. Observe if there is any activity in your water-meter. If yes, go for a plumber. Whenever you go out for vacations, do close the main supply of water.

Rainwater harvesting

One of the best ways to save water is rainwater harvesting. Rainwater harvesting is one of the simplest ways to collect and store rainwater instead of allowing it to run off. In India, the Government of India has launched a campaign by the name ‘Catch the Rain’, which aims to conserve rainwater. These days many private agencies are available who can install your water-harvesting project.

Eco-Car Washing

We use an average 30 litres of water to wash a single car. If we wash our car daily, we waste 10,950 litres per car each year. So every year to wash one car we use almost 70 percent of the water that a human being consumes throughout his life! Overall, India has around 308 million cars and the numbers are fast increasing. Now, I leave it to you to calculate the water wastage just on washing/cleaning our cars.

Instead of going for washing, we can go for wet mopping where only 2 litres of water is used. We can go for dry-mopping which further reduces water wastage to 1 litre. Dust off the vehicle before spraying water on it. Sometimes a simple dust off is good enough for your car to look clean. Keep your car covered to reduce the amount of dust falling on it. Use a bucket instead of a continuous water flow from a hose. If you are using a hose, use one which has a spray handle that automatically shuts off the nozzle as you leave it. At home, try to wash your vehicle over a garden where the run-off water can be absorbed and used.

Save water in kitchen

Kitchen is a major area where much water is wasted. You can save a lot of water if you tweak the way you use water in the kitchen. If you wash dishes by hand, don’t leave the water running for rinsing. If you have two sinks, fill one with rinse water. If you have only one sink, first gather all your washed dishes in a dish rack, then rinse them quickly with a spray device or a pan of water.

Mulching of plants

Plants at home or home-gardens also absorb water. You can reduce this water use by the process known as mulching which is putting a layer of bio-waste around trees and plants. Mulch slows the evaporation of moisture and helps save a good quantity of water. Water is liquid gold, save it.

The writer is an interior designer and a prominent environmentalist. She has created more than 125 urban-forests and is a pioneer in vertical gardens with waste plastic bottles. She has also started the world’s first ever free Tree and Plant Hospital equipped with tree ambulances. Views expressed are personal.

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