THE drought that is ravaging much of the country is old news, and the need to save water hardly needs to be emphasised – or maybe it does.
At time of writing there were still no formal water restrictions down here on the lower South Coast, it’s still being left up to us whether we take the situation seriously or not, so perhaps it’s worth a revisit.
There really is no need to discuss hosepipes, they should be rolled up and put away until things are back to normal, use a bucket instead.
Think in terms of a black plastic garbage bin under a downpipe from your gutter system, I think they hold about 50 litres and I know that we need just 8mm of rain to fill ours, and that’s just off the back part of the roof (rain, in the middle of a drought, you ask?).
If there are plants in the garden that must be watered, think of using ‘grey’ water from the house, from the shower for example.
The shower is a very good place to start. How’s this for an idea? Put a baby bath or similar in the shower and stand in it, you’ll be amazed at how much water you collect.
Staying in the shower (if we may), remember that it takes a fraction of the water than does a bath. And take short showers (I remember at school the house master standing by with a stop-watch – we were allowed exactly three minutes).
Let the kids shower together, and of course there is nothing stopping consenting adults from showering together too. And those showers down at the beach, please don’t overuse them, that water all comes from the same poor old river.
In the house, apart from drips and leaks of course, and we all know about them, there are quite a few ways to save water.
Select a short, sharp cycle on your washing machine and always do a full load. The same goes for your dishwasher, should you have one, always run it full, and while we’re washing up, don’t do a cup or a glass at a time, wait for a decent load.
Put a litre bottle of water into your toilet cistern, and don’t flush unnecessarily.
Every drop really does count.
And now for some light relief. A cup of coffee gives one a boost, right, it’s a pick-me-up.
Well, here’s something new about coffee, it can actually give you real energy. A company called Bio-bean, based in London in the UK, collects coffee grounds from about 100 cafes around London, turns them into pellets at its facility, and sells the pellets as fuel to people using biomass boilers to produce energy.
The Bio-bean people claim that the energy produced from the coffee pellets can be used to heat vehicles, like public buses, and homes. So, coffee really does give you energy.*
Enjoy your holiday, save water, drink coffee. Cheers!
*The Week: The Best of the British and International Media.
