Tracy Rout’s Recent Comments

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  Some extra tips

  To follow up my previous post - if you are really serious about saving water, here's some extra tips (in addition to Umbra's excellent ones) from Australia:
  

  • Don't hose your garden, in fact, don't hose anything. Throw out your hose right now.
    
  • Collect any grey water in your house (from washing dishes, using the washing machine, mopping the floor) and use that on the garden. This requires that you use garden-friendly low phosphate cleaners, which I'm sure we all do anyway.
    
  • If you have to clean your car, do it with a bucket on the lawn. Or go to a car wash that uses recycled water.
    
  • Even with a low flow shower head, you shouldn't shower for any longer than 4 minutes.
    
  I think the way to make the most difference in your household use of water is to change the way you think about water. If you know that it is valuable, you won't want to waste it.On Umbra on water conservation posted 2 years, 7 months ago 15 Responses

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  Recognising the value of water

  Water (or lack thereof) is a huge issue in Australia. As a long time water miser, what has really amazed me has been how quickly the public's mindset has changed in recent years. My home-city of Brisbane, Queensland, is now on level 5 water restrictions, which is the highest level there is (so far). This means restrictions of 140 litres per person per day, with fines for people who exceed this. Washing cars is banned, and gardens can only be watered with buckets, between 4 and 7pm on certain nights of the week. In a city where no more than five years ago it was common to see kids playing under sprinklers on lush green lawns, now every second house has (at least one) rain water tank, and people get chastised by their neighbours if their lawn isn't the same crunchy brown texture as the rest of ours. Of course there are some people who just stick to the rules, or even flaunt them, but I think it's really amazing how quickly most people have changed their outlook and begun to recognise the real value of water.On Umbra on water conservation posted 2 years, 7 months ago 15 Responses