In our modern Western world we are used to have water running from our taps. Most of us in the West have clean fresh running water in our kitchens and bathrooms as a minimum. If you have a garden you probably use running fresh water to keep the grass green and the flowers happy, or maybe use some to grow some vegetables. Either way, we are used to having water on demand. And we abuse it. We (I am using we to indicate most people in this case, I know some of us are more careful than others..) take long showers in summer, sometimes two or more per day, leave the tap open while brushing our teeth or doing the dishes, water the gardens for longer than necessary etc.. And then, due to an incredibly dry year, some countries find themselves with very limited resources. People in the U.K. shopping at mayor supermarkets should know about Spain's drought as the stocks of iceberg lettuce were low because of it and this was widely reported in the news. Similarly, in Rome (where I find myself right now, being my home city) an extended period of incredibly low rainfall this year and a warm summer means that water levels are dangerously low (I have never seen the Tiber this low before, or the parks so dry!). This means that the ration of water between houses (meaning for many having access to water only a few hours per day) is a possibility, and citizen are in caos because of it. Bottled water surely isn't a better alternative due to all the plastic being involved... So what can we do?
First of all - make sure your toilet is a water saving one: you can choose to change yours with a smaller water container, or if house renovations of any kind are out of budget a good idea is to occupy some of the volume of the existing one with an object!. Another clever idea is to change the flushing system to one with a double flush (a short or longer one). However I am a strong believer that, at least all new builds and as many houses as possible, should have a system in place to use the grey water from showers and sinks to flush the toilets, because it is a waste to flush clean water! Secondly - education is key. We should teach our children where does our water come from? We should make sure things like correct water usage are taught in school from a young age - perhaps they are as important as teaching math! If everyone remembered to use only what needed we will have less problems... Lastly, although this is a responsibility of governments more than individuals, we should ensure that we find sustainable ways to collect water to drink, using as many sources as possible rather than depleting single sources (i.e. a specific lake, as in the Rome case). As I said, it's nothing we can personally directly change, but we can make sure our voices are heard when it comes to sustainability and as we have the right (and duty!) to vote our governments, maybe we should think about these sort of environmental and communitary au pair with economical and other political issues at the next elections!
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