Columnists
Water, water…
This week, I will not mention Donald Trump. Nope. This column is dedicated to all those people who just don’t understand the importance of conserving water and the significance of the current County-wide drought. It’s also for the people who do understand and don’t know how to have a good time conserving. This column is a little bit of something for everyone. Now, I may be a bit feeble-minded about ecology, but I do recognize the look of a lack of significant rainfall.
The County is in dire straits, water-wise. Here’s the dealio: even if your household or business is drawing from a municipal water source, that water is still coming from the lake. And, I know, municipal water users pay dearly in good ole PEC, but I get the feeling that some of us think we should be able set our own limits, as regards consumption, because we pay. I don’t agree with that sentiment. Right now, in spite of the recent rainfall, this area is using water faster than it can be naturally replenished. If we practice a bit of conservation, we can save hundreds of litres per person every day.
Did you know the average Canadian household uses over 500,000 litres of water per year? That seems like a lot of water to me. Apparently, a fair portion of that water is wasted. Before it gets used, it goes down the drain, so to speak. What the H E double shower heads is that all about? How is it even possible to waste so much water? I suppose if we think about all of the times we’ve turned the taps on and let the water run while we look for a drinking cup or rummage through the cupboard looking for the right saucepan or let the water run while we put the toothpaste on our toothbrush, the waste adds up. Raise your hand if you’ve ever turned the shower on and then headed over to the toilet. You may think you’re killing two birds with one stone, getting that morning piddle out of the way while the water heats up. What you’re actually doing is wasting gallons of water. And I’m not talking about wasting your personal waste water. How many times a week do we do stupid things just like that? And if all you did was piddle, did you flush? As gross as it may sound, it doesn’t hurt to “let the yellow mellow” for a couple of performances. Of course, the other side of that is, if it’s brown, flush it down. The thing about water conservation is that there could be a dribble of fun in it.
For instance, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with sharing the shower with someone else. Is there? Before you get all excited, LOML and I don’t share showers. Oh, we’ve joked about it, but we’ve got one of those oldfashioned clawfoot tubs with a shower curtain that hangs from an ancient plaster ceiling on a circular rod. We’ve come to the conclusion that two clumsy old farts and the precarious curtain situation is a dangerous combination. Neither of us could imagine the 911 call for assistance. But give shower-sharing a thought if you’ve got facilities that are more amenable to the effort involved. I suppose things could really get out of hand when you’re shower-sharing and you could end up spending more than three minutes sudsing up. (Three minutes, by the way, is our suggested shower time limit.) Someone could get hurt “real bad” or it could become a more frequent event in your household, depending on how much fun you have. And don’t ask how I know that. My point is, if you’ve got lots of room, you’re agile and there isn’t a curtain thing, share the shower.
My neighbour told me she and her family collect their shower runoff in a pan and then use the water on her vegetable garden. I hope she doesn’t share their tomatoes with us. I wouldn’t want to waste food, either.
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