Water conservation is more critical than we all could imagine. It is not only a favor you are doing to the society but also contributing to less fossil fuel burning. I know this is surprising, but hey, when we run out of water, it is electricity which is used to pump it up to our overhead tanks. And where does this electricity come from? In today’s post, I will discuss a few ways of conserving water at home.

Image courtesy : www.schertz.com

The above image maybe a graphical representation of water usage patterns outside India, but I think, this is also applicable to India with a minor change in the percentage values involved.

 Before I even come to suggesting change of habits, here are a few things which are mandatory for water conservation in every home:

• Make sure that you do not have dripping taps or faulty taps.
• Ensure that your flush tanks are not faulty. I have known cases where people don’t even realize that this could be a potential problem and silently the flush tank looses litres of water, hour after hour.
• If you change the parts in the tap, make a note of the date when it was changed and ask your plumber what is the expected life span on this new part. This way you would know how long before you can replace it pro-actively.
• Use quality parts while replacing. If possible, invest in good quality fittings to start with.
• Inculcate habits of effective water usage to children (and adults). Children are going to run the show tomorrow. They ought to learn the importance of good potable water.
• Investigate methods by which you could reuse water at home.
• If you building/home does not have a rain water harvesting system, please deploy this. You would be surprised at the amount of good which it does to ground water levels.

 Besides these points mentioned we could also adopt the following measures:

• Do not let the water running while brushing teeth or shaving.
• Use shower if possible instead of the bucket/mug based bath. You may not believe it but shower helps reduce water consumption. And it is refreshing too.
• In the kitchen, plug the basin and reuse water. Traditionally we let the water run through for each and every vessel washed/rinsed.
• Try to consolidate clothes for one “large” lot of wash instead of two or three cycles in medium setting.

Each drop counts. So lets do our best to conserve water for our coming generations.

chill out

Authors

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Thought I’ll list down all the ways in which one can reduce carbon emissions from a home. This is becoming a hot topic these days, especially with regard to companies trading in carbon credits and so forth. For the uninitiated, one carbon credit is equivalent to one ton of carbon emissions and the price I believe, ranges from around $15 to $20. ITC for one, has made a big brouhaha about becoming carbon negative. But that’s beside the point. The point being that even ordinary homes can try to become carbon negative if they care about global warming. I really don’t know the figures involved here (whether a carbon negative home is feasible or not) and will have to research this much more before giving a clear path for people to follow. Google actually gave me a result of exactly one when I searched ‘carbon negative home’. Amazing. Anyway, that has to wait. For now, am just making a list of the various ways in which carbon emissions can be reduced from our homes.

• Plant trees if you have space. More the better. Needless, to say this is a good investment for the future, if you choose the right sapling (say like teak). Besides that it looks great in your garden apart from the shade.
• Keep some plants indoor if you live in an apartment. When well done, it is quite charming.
• Use a solar water heater. This will actually save you significant amount of money as well, and is fast becoming a mainstream option in the Indian climate.
• Go in for solar lighting.
• Use CFL instead of incandescent lamps.
• Always buy energy efficient devices.
• Get your car to run on LPG. This can also save you quite a bit of money.
• Be kind on the air conditioner (and to yourself) by keeping it at moderate temperatures like 26 than the sub 24 ones. After all, there is no need to live in the Arctic even if it has become Sahara outside.
• And finally the one you mother always told you to do, ‘switch off that light if you are not using it’.

As you might have noticed all the actions focus on one of three things:

• Reducing your indirect emissions (reduce power consumption -> less power is generated -> less emissions)
• Reducing your direct emissions (from your vehicle etc.)
• Increasing carbon intake (growing our green cousins)

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