The Water Challenge Chronicles – Jon, Week 5

Wow, it’s already Week 5 of Food & Water Watch’s Water Challenge! Searching for new ways to save water, I started taking inventory of the items in my house where I have already saved a substantial amount of water.

While most of the appliances in my home are water-efficient, one remains that is not—the toilet. Although I have been keeping a bucket of water in my shower and using that to flush, there are times that I have to resort to water from the 5-gallon tank. Since this isn’t terribly efficient, I decided to research some ways to make the act of flushing less wasteful.

I found that displacing water in my tank is a great way of reducing the amount of water that it takes to flush. I grabbed two plastic one-gallon milk jugs, filled them up with water, and slowly lowered them into my tank. Due to a lapse in judgment, the first attempt created a surge of water that swooshed out of the tank. Yeah, displacement—get it? You’d think that I would have known better. Anyway, I found that the trick was to keep the handle partially pressed down as I slowly put the jugs in the tank to equalize the water level. Once both of them were in place, I noticed two things. The first was that the tank fills much faster because there is less tank to actually fill. The second was a faster flush time, due once again to the fact that there’s less water to actually flush. Now instead of expending between four and five gallons of water per flush, I am down to about two-and-a-half to three gallons of water! Great yet another way that I am saving water in my household.

So lets recap: I wash my dishes by hand, rinse in a dishpan, and use the grey water on plants and my garden. I have replaced my showerhead with a low-flow option. I had all the leaky pipes in my house replaced. I filter my tap water, as opposed to buying bottled water from the store. I take shorter showers, and do not leave the sink running while I brush my teeth or shave. I use run-off from the shower to flush my toilet. I have displaced water in my toilet to save additional water on flushes, and I have helped raised awareness of water conservation through my contributions to this blog!

You see-- small changes really do add up. I would love to hear your comments or stories of how water conservation has changed your life.

-- Jon Brown