Shower with a Friend for Blog Action Day 2007
Hello, my name is Karen and I shower with a friend.
I have been doing this since the beginning of January 2007. My friend is blue, and a little square…and has a plastic handle. Yes, my friend is a bucket!
Let me tell you my story.
I live in Australia: a continent and a single country that’s roughly the size of the USA (minus Alaska). The majority of this country is desert with little or no human population. Over 80% of the 21 million population is located around the coast line, especially the eastern coastline. And the two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne are home to over a third of Australia’s population.
When I moved to Australia, many years ago, it was a dry country, but I lived in Melbourne. Drought was a problem for country folk. I watched the tragic effect of el Niño and la Niña and all the other climate change events on the country and I sympathised with the people who lived in the rural areas and were suffering from the impacts of drought. But it wasn’t my problem.
In Melbourne the worst impact that I faced was that for a couple of months each year I was only able to use my sprinkler system to water my garden every second day. And I felt I was really doing it tough when, during the 2 or 3 hottest months I had to use a hose rather than a sprinkler.
But it’s different now.
The penny has finally started to drop with us City folk that our water resources are severely depleted and are not being sufficiently replenished by Winter rains. And this is not ’someone else’s problem’ any more. Water restrictions are becoming more serious and are now a part of life, rather than an exception to it.
Our water catchment areas are running at well below 50% and we’re through Winter. Even if we get good rains in Spring (and they’re not looking too great so far), we’re already starting from a significantly further behind position than we have in previous years. Suddenly we’re all investing in water catchment tanks in our back yards to catch the rainwater from our roofs, and grey water recycling systems to pump used water from showers and washing machines onto the garden or into our toilet flushing systems. Those leisurely 30 minute hot showers are a thing of the past. Anyone who averages more than 5 minutes in the shower is practically committing treason.
Over Winter this year in Melbourne we’ve been on 3a Restrictions. Which are not very onerous. But the mere fact that we have any Water Restrictions in place over Winter demonstrates how things have changed for us. We can certainly expect higher restrictions to kick in this Summer earlier than in previous years. Our Governments are exploring ideas to address the problem; desalination plants, building new dams etc. But these are all long term solutions and the problem is clearly increasing rapidly year on year. And it’s no good blaming the Governments for not protecting us from this situation. Australia is a democracy, for Heaven’s sake. You get what you vote for. Any major political party that went to the polls with promises to invest this heavily in water conservation infrastructure at the expense of other social issues would have been slaughtered in elections a few years ago.
So now I share my 3 minute shower with my friend the bucket and use the water to flush my toilet to reduce my water consumption. I catch my washing machine waste water in a convoy of buckets to recycle on my garden. And I watch my annual Water Rates (taxes) zoom upwards as we start to fund our future water conservation projects.
My purpose in sharing this story with you is simple. Don’t let it happen to you!
This problem does not belong to the Country Folk or the ‘Tree-huggers’. This problem will be yours one day soon, City Slicker. Start paying attention now and find out what you can do to raise awareness in your community. Start treating water as a precious resource…because that’s what it is!
And make friends with a bucket. Showering with a friend does save water.
~This post is in support of Blog Action Day 2007 where blogs are focusing the World’s attention on one issue on this one day: The Environment. Scraps of Mind joins the millions of people who are participating in this event, either as bloggers or as readers.~
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12 Responses to “Shower with a Friend for Blog Action Day 2007”
Hi Karen
Thank you so much for supporting such an important issue and for posting it on the boxx to show awareness, i dont have a blog but will give my support by reading them.
Cheers Jodie
By Jodie on Oct 15, 2007
I will try to send some of the rain that we seem to have too much of lately!!
By Sharon on Oct 15, 2007
Well done Karen. Very inspiring topic and a very important issue that ALL of Australia needs to address, not just the country poeple..or leaving it to the next generation. Action needs to be done NOW!
Take care of that bucket now
Tammy
By Tammy Templeton on Oct 15, 2007
Shower with a friend – now that’s an awesome idea… I’m gonna grab a bar of soap, a towel and my cellphone… please visit my Blog Action Day post if you get a chance…
http://dave-lucas.blogspot.com/2007/10/blog-action-day-2007-salute-to-al-gore.html
By Dave Lucas on Oct 15, 2007
You go girl! I had no idea it was THAT bad in Australia. I’m so happy you joined us this day. I only wish everyone could get involved and help us turn this around. I fear it might be too late, but it can’t hurt to try. Thanks a bunch for this.
By SuZ on Oct 16, 2007
Karen I love this! What a fantastic idea. I am a tree hugger and do everything I can to help the environment and stop the effect of global climate change. This is something I have never even considered or read about!
I will post your idea on my blog and some of my own. Today there will be a bucket added to my shower!
Thank you!
By Karen on Oct 16, 2007
Yes it certainly is dry here in Victoria at the moment. Last summer I collected th kids bath water and the washing machine water for the veggie patch and flowers. Looks like more of the same this year too.
By Steve Mills on Oct 16, 2007
Glad you liked the article everyone. I’m so used to the bucket now that I feel quite strange when I shower somewhere else and there’s no bucket. How weird is that. I also keep a bucket in the laundry trough and catch the water when I wash my hands to use for flushing or watering pot plants. And I have a small back yard and I’ve just bought a water catchment tank to install this week in readiness for the Summer. I have to say I’ve never been so water conscious in my life. But every little bit helps. Especially if everyone is doing it.
By karooch on Oct 16, 2007
Very laudable course of action given the slow dawning that water in some parts of the globe is actually a finite resource. Here in the UK if the government banned the sales of dishwashers and forced the water companies to fix leaks promptly there would never ever be a hosepipe ban.
Quite honestly there are enough proven methods of recycling water currently available on the market that if they were made cheap as chips of even free by government subsidy then even the laziest people on the planet could help to manage their own water needs.
As it is celebrities/oil wars/human rights/religious hatred/political infighting all take precedence in worldwide governments “to do list” and so parts of the world will inevitably dry up.
By Derek on Oct 16, 2007
Hi Karen I shower with a friend in Melbourne too. A white bucket though. I’ve learnt to run waterinto the bucket untill it becomes hot then wet my body turn the water off soap and rinse clean. I can shower on 4 to 5 litres and only when my body needs washing. We do the same with our clothes washing recycle water up to 3 times and carefully distribute into the garden. We/ve cut our water consumption to a very low level
By Neil on Oct 16, 2007
Yay Neil, that’s brilliant. My Significant other has built a complex arrangement of wheelie bins joined together with PVC pipes which he catches his shower and laundry water in (as well as his roof gutter water) and feeds it back to his toilet flushing system and on to his garden. He’s a lot more organised than me.
Well Derek, I guess the truth is that at a global level we have the resources to ensure sufficient water and food to the planet. But the behaviour of human beings is what stops us from living in Utopia.
By karooch on Oct 17, 2007