Today – Saturday, March 22 – is World Water Day. Sponsored by the United Nations since 1992, the purpose of World Water Day is to raise awareness of the need to protect and improve access to clean water supplies. According to the article I read, only 2.5% of the world’s water is drinkable. This would be ample if the water were clean and available when needed – but it’s not. 1.2 billion of the world’s people lack access to safe drinking water. 2.6 billion lack proper sanitation (adequate sewage disposal). 1.8 million children worldwide died in 2006 due to tainted water supplies, not to mention those who became ill. Uncounted numbers of women still carry water. What can I do against such odds? Yet, as a citizen of the world, I see it as my obligation to know something about our water.
We have given some thought to this issue since we didn’t have hot and cold running water on the farm prior to remodeling the house. In fact, for the Dobson family there was not a viable source of drinking water near the house and water had to be carried from springs or from town. The spring water was probably of questionable quality. Now that we have a good deep well, our water supply is still dependent on the supply of electricity to the pump and the storage tank. It’s easy to take water for granted until for some reason we don’t have it.
Mike and I are concerned about water conservation wherever we are, but I admit to being a consumption offender when I shower. Mike on the other hand is a study in shower efficiency. Quickly wetting himself in extremely hot water, he then turns the water to a trickle while he lathers. He rinses in hot water and then turns the faucet to cold for a final blast. He has done this forever. When we remodeled the farmhouse, the contractor and the plumber just didn’t
understand why they couldn’t interest me in anything but a small functional stall.
I’m sure I’ve spoken before of our drought-tolerant garden here in town. Plants in our garden must be perennial or self-seeding, deer resistant, and drought tolerant. One of our main interests in establishing such a landscape is the conservation of water – which brings me to the next issue, a conservation problem. In this little modular home, it takes forever for the hot water to come through. In other words, when I want to draw a sink of hot water, I probably run two gallons of good fresh cold water down the drain before the water coming through the tap is hot. It’s even worse in the master bathroom because it’s that much farther from the hot water tank. We have wondered how we can improve that situation. We thought of some sort of auxiliary hot water heater under the sink. We thought of catching the cold water and carrying it to the plants – an idea that applies only in the warm weather months. Let me know if you have any ideas on this subject.
I guess for the millions of people whose water is contaminated, these issues would seem frivolous. But wherever we are, we should be thinking about our water – its quality, its quantity, its future. KW
We have given some thought to this issue since we didn’t have hot and cold running water on the farm prior to remodeling the house. In fact, for the Dobson family there was not a viable source of drinking water near the house and water had to be carried from springs or from town. The spring water was probably of questionable quality. Now that we have a good deep well, our water supply is still dependent on the supply of electricity to the pump and the storage tank. It’s easy to take water for granted until for some reason we don’t have it.
Mike and I are concerned about water conservation wherever we are, but I admit to being a consumption offender when I shower. Mike on the other hand is a study in shower efficiency. Quickly wetting himself in extremely hot water, he then turns the water to a trickle while he lathers. He rinses in hot water and then turns the faucet to cold for a final blast. He has done this forever. When we remodeled the farmhouse, the contractor and the plumber just didn’t
understand why they couldn’t interest me in anything but a small functional stall.I’m sure I’ve spoken before of our drought-tolerant garden here in town. Plants in our garden must be perennial or self-seeding, deer resistant, and drought tolerant. One of our main interests in establishing such a landscape is the conservation of water – which brings me to the next issue, a conservation problem. In this little modular home, it takes forever for the hot water to come through. In other words, when I want to draw a sink of hot water, I probably run two gallons of good fresh cold water down the drain before the water coming through the tap is hot. It’s even worse in the master bathroom because it’s that much farther from the hot water tank. We have wondered how we can improve that situation. We thought of some sort of auxiliary hot water heater under the sink. We thought of catching the cold water and carrying it to the plants – an idea that applies only in the warm weather months. Let me know if you have any ideas on this subject.
I guess for the millions of people whose water is contaminated, these issues would seem frivolous. But wherever we are, we should be thinking about our water – its quality, its quantity, its future. KW
At least you live where water is more plentiful than here. It gravels me when people move here, then install elaborate water features that evaporate your entire daily use of water, and think things are "cool".
ReplyDeleteOne solution to your hot water problem would be to install a demand water heater at your kitchen and bathroom sinks and/or shower. I now wish I had them, although I put an additional water heater at the far end of the house near the kitchen sink. It helped, but was not the ideal solution.
I would't go for more than one on demand heater. The logistics might get a bit out of hand. You either need gas and a flue pipe or 220V for one of those that you won't hate. And it's not just water, but energy that your saving and while the water crisis is coming the energy crisis is here.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that folks in california are running DC water heaters from solar panels. Going to Butte this summer and will try to make it to their alternative energy comunity up by placerville to search for ideas.
We are interested in the "on demand" water heater so appreciate the additional comments on whether or not that would be appropriate. We haven't done our own research yet. Meanwhile we fill Nellie's water bucket while we wait for hotter water like Hector. KW
ReplyDeleteI read an article in "Real Simple" the other day while waiting for LJ at the PT. The people in the article had the same problem as you with the bathroom so far away from the hot water heater and they had installed something called a "recirculating water pump" and listed this website:
ReplyDeletewww.gothotwater.com
They said it has saved them 2-5 gallons of water evey time they needed hot water at the bathrom tap.