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Everyone can help in saving water in many
little ways.
Here are some Water
Conservation tips with the help of which you can contribute in
improving the water situation:
First become aware of how you use water: you will see lots of room
for improvement.
Stop The Drip
A small drip from a leaky tap / faucet is just a
drop in the bucket, right? Wrong! Even a slow leak can waste
many liters of water each day. If you count up all the possible
leak spots in your home, there is a huge water loss !
Scout around your entire home looking for
possible leak spots. Try around indoor and outdoor faucets,
under toilets, near showers and other fixtures. Get the leaks
repaired.
Washing Dishes
* If one washes dishes
three times a day with water running full on, up to 90 litres of
water is used per day. But if you want to use water wisely, you
will fill two dishpans / vessels with water and use one to soap
the dishes and the other for rinsing. This way you will consume
only 15 litres per wash. Savings: 45 litres per day!!
Vegetable Washings
* Do not wash fruits and vegetables under continuously running tap. Fill water in a vessel and soak
the fruits/ vegetables in them for some time and wash with same
water.
* The water left from vegetable washings can be
used for watering your plants.
Washing Clothes
* Don't let the tap run while you wash clothes.
* The used water after rinsing of clothes can be used for other cleaning purposes
like mopping the
floors, cleaning cars.
* Operate your washing machine on eco mode to conserve
water.
Soak clothes prior to washing. This will help to cut
down the quantity of soap and the number of rinses.
* Do not use cleaning products that will harm
the environment. Use good quality soaps instead of detergents or
"bathing bars".
Brushing and Shaving
* Brushing teeth and shaving can consume very
large amount of water if you leave the tap running. Upto 16
litres of water is consumed each time a person brushes or
shaves. Turn the water off while you are actually brushing /
shaving instead of running it continuously. For shaving if you
use a bowl of water, then you will use less than 4 litres.
Savings: 20 litres per day !!
Bathing
* In a 5 minute shower, upto 60 litres of
water is consumed. But if you use a bucket you will find that
one or two 20 litre buckets are enough. Savings: 20 - 30 litres
per day per person.
Check the flush
* The average flush tank of your toilet
holds 15 litre. of water. Only 9 - 10 litre are needed to flush, but
all 15 litre go down the drain. If you use a bucket, you will
use only 5 - 10 litres to do the same job. You can also place
a brick or a sealed 2 litre bottle filled with sand inside the
water tank of the flush. This way you will save 2 litres of
water every time you flush.
* When you install a new toilet, buy a low
flush system which saves water with every flush.
* Never flush garbage of any kind like
cigarette butts, tissues paper, etc. down the toilet.
Car Wash
* Washing a car with a hose takes about 90 litres per wash: a
scooter needs about 40. You can save a lot of water by washing
your car with water from a bucket. Savings: 30 - 45 litres per
wash.
* After cleaning the
vehicle you can drain the water
to plants / trees nearby.
* Be mindful of the detergent you use to
clean your vehicle.
In The Garden and
Driveway
* Gardens do not need the same purity of
water as for drinking. But it is common to find plants being
watered from the municipal supply which is primarily meant for
domestic consumption. This means that someone else is deprived
of safe drinking water. You can use water left after mopping
your floors, washing your vehicle, or just muddy (provided it
has no soap) water for irrigating.
* If you use a hose to water your potted
plants, you waste a lot of water as you move the hose from one
pot to another. If you use a bucket or watering can, nothing
goes waste.
* Depending on the climate of your area, lawns maybe watered
at intervals of two to five days.
* Use water saving devices like sprinklers, drip irrigation
etc.
* Water during the cool part of the day, in early morning
or late evening. Infact if watering is
done mid-day of course the water evaporates fast and the plant
never get the water. Secondly due to formation of some amount
of steam it also harms the plants.
* Do not over water in anticipation of
shortage. Soil cannot store extra water.
* Avoid using pesticides / Hazardous
materials in garden/ yard.
Why water concrete terraces or driveways; they won't grow.
Waste Water Not
* Turn off taps when not in use, whether at your home,
school, market, temple or any other place ....
* For the negligence of a few people everyone suffers. In
apartments / flats the ground floor people consume maximum
water, while people on top floors get little or even no
supply. People also have installed booster which not only
fills but also overflows their tanks, causing a lot of
wastage. Are you or your neighbours one of these? Can you do
to something to save water?
Go Top
WATER
HARVESTING
* When building new driveways or terraces, use porous
tiles: these will allow rain water to percolate into the
soil. Don't build houses all the way to the edge of the
plot; save some room for kutcha or uncemented part where you
can grow plants and also allow water to percolate.
* In your school divert the waste water from your drinking
water taps either to a soak pit or to nearby plants / trees.
* If possible construct rain water harvesting structures at
your home. For more information on this consult
www.cgwaindia.com
Go Top
MAKING BIRD BATHS
Make simple bird baths to provide
birds with clean water during summers and in turn attract birds
in your garden.
Materials Required:Clay pans or metal pans or a shallow plastic
containers, strong wires, large nail and hammer.
Activity
- Take a shallow clay pan.
- Using the nail and hammer make holes and hang up the
bird-bath in a tree or from a rafter of the verandah. This
will keep them safe from cats which might kill the birds
coming to drink and bathe.
- Ensure that the pan is cleaned every morning and kept
filled with clean water.
- Observe the birds visiting the bird-bath and make notes of
their sizes and shapes.
- Along with the bird-bath, a feed-place can also be
constructed to watch what food which bird takes.
- Can you draw the visiting birds, noting the important
features, e.g. size, colour, shape of bill, etc. Notes may
be made of which species raise their heads to drink and
which suck up the water.
Further
activity
Look up books on birds to identify the bird
species visiting the bird-bath and the feeding station.
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