Next to air, water is the most important element for the preservation of life. Water is a finite commodity which, if not managed properly, will result in shortages in the near future. Rainwater conservation can go a long way to help alleviate these impending shortages. Also using water-saving techniques can save you money and diverts less water from our rivers, bays, and estuaries, which helps keep the environment healthy. It can also reduce water and wastewater treatment costs and the amount of energy used to treat, pump, and heat water. This lowers energy demand, which helps prevent air pollution.
Saving Water Helps Protect Our Nation’s Water Reserves
It’s not just the dry western areas of the country that need to be concerned with water efficiency. As our population continues to grow, demands on precious water resources increase. There are many opportunities to use household water more efficiently without reducing services. Homes with high-efficiency plumbing fixtures and appliances save about 30 percent of indoor water use and yield substantial savings on water, sewer, and energy bills. Start saving tomorrow, today ( in the form of water ).
Quality of water:
Water quality helps us understand what is going on in the subsurface, where and how fast water is moving, what geochemical reactions are occurring, identifying different sources of water, etc. Water quality also affects, for want of a better term, civilization’s plumbing. Harmful algae is the result of excess nutrient pollution in the water. Poor water quality has its most direct impact on aquatic wildlife, particularly fish, bugs, and plants. Excess nutrients, sediment, road salt, and other contaminants can reduce the variety and hardiness of organisms living in the state’s waters.
How to save water at Institutional level
- Develop complete water management plan.
- Develop a water conservation plan
- Implement rooftop rainwater harvesting
- Conduct Water-use Audits of Water Distribution Systems.
- Implement a Water-loss Management Program to Repair Leaks.
How to save water at Individual level
- Check your toilet for leaks.
Put a few drops of food coloring in your toilet tank. If, without flushing, the coloring begins to appear in the bowl, you have a leak that may be wasting more than 300 litres of water a day.
- Stop using your toilet as an ashtray or wastebasket
Every cigarette butt or tissue you flush away also flushes away five to seven gallons of water.
- Put a plastic bottle in your toilet tank
Put an inch or two of sand or pebbles in the bottom of a one litre bottle to weigh it down. Fill the rest of the bottle with water and put it in your toilet tank, safely away from the operating mechanism. In an average home, the bottle may save five gallons or more of water every day without harming the efficiency of the toilet. If your tank is big enough, you may even be able to put in two bottles.
- Take shorter showers
A typical shower uses five to ten gallons of water a minute. Limit your showers to the time it takes to soap up, wash down and rise off.
- Install water-saving shower heads or flow restrictors
Your hardware or plumbing supply store stocks inexpensive shower heads or flow restrictors that will cut your shower flow to about three gallons a minute instead of five to ten. They are easy to install, and your showers will still be cleansing and refreshing.
- Avoid using bath tubs
A partially filled tub uses less water than all but the shortest showers.
- Turn off the water while brushing your teeth
Before brushing, wet your brush and fill a glass for rinsing your mouth.
- Use Tumbler while shaving
Use plastic Tumbler few inches of water to rinse your razor.
- Check faucets and pipes for leaks
Even a small drip can waste 200 litres of water a day.
- Use your automatic dishwasher for full loads only
Every time you run your dishwasher, you use about 25 gallons of water.
- Use your automatic washing machine only for full loads only
Your automatic washer uses 30 to 35 gallons per cycle.
- Don’t let the faucet run while you clean vegetables
Rinse your vegetables instead in a bowl or sink full of clean water.
- Keep a bottle of drinking water in the refrigerator
This puts a stop to the wasteful practice of running tap water to cool it for drinking.
- If you wash dishes by hand, don’t leave the water running for rinsing
If you have two sinks, fill one with rinse water. If you have only one sink, first gather all your washed dishes in a dish rack, then rinse them quickly with a spray device or a pan of water.
- Check faucets and pipes for leaks
Leaks waste water 24 hours a day, seven days a week. An inexpensive washer is usually enough to stop them.
- Water your lawn only when it needs it
Watering on a regular schedule doesn’t allow for cool spells or rainfall which reduce the need for watering. Step on some grass. If it springs back up when you move your foot, it doesn’t need water.
- Deep-soak your lawn
When you do water your lawn, water it long enough for water to seep down to the roots where it is needed. A light sprinkling that sits on the surface will simply evaporate and be wasted.
- Water during the cool parts of the day
Early morning is better than dusk since it helps prevent the growth of fungus.
- Don’t water the gutter
Position your sprinklers so that water lands on your lawn or garden, not in areas where it does no good. Also, avoid watering on windy days when much of your water may be carried off to the streets and sidewalks.
- Plant drought-resistant trees and plants
Many beautiful trees and plants thrive without irrigation.
- Put a layer of mulch around trees and plants.
Mulch slows the evaporation of moisture.
- Use a broom to clean driveways, sidewalks and steps
Using a hose wastes hundreds and hundreds of gallons of water.
- Don’t run the hose while washing your car
Soap down your car from a pail of soapy water. Use a hose only to rinse it off.
- Tell your children not to play with the hose and sprinklers
Children love to play under a hose or sprinkler on a hot day. Unfortunately, this practice is extremely wasteful of precious water and should be discouraged.
- Check for leaks in pipes, hoses faucets and couplings
Leaks outside the house are easier to ignore since they since they don’t mess up the floor or keep you awake at night. However, they can be even more wasteful than inside water leaks especially when they occur on your main water line.
- Stop leaks.
Check all water-using appliances, equipment, and other devices for leaks. Running toilets, steady faucet drips, home water treatment units, and outdoor sprinkler systems are common sources of leaks.
- Replace old toilets.
The major water use inside the home is toilet flushing. If your home was built before 1992 and you haven’t replaced your toilets recently, you could benefit from installing a Water Sense labeled model that uses 1.28 gallons or less per flush. A family of four can save 16,000 gallons of water per year by making this change.
- Install Water Sense labeled faucet aerators and showerheads.
Water Sense labeled products use at least 20 percent less water than standard models, while providing equal or superior performance. By installing Water Sense labeled faucet aerators and showerheads, the average family can save nearly 3,500 gallons of water and nearly 410 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.
- Plant the right plants.
Whether you’re installing a new landscape or changing the existing one, select plants that are appropriate for your climate. Consider landscaping techniques designed to create a visually attractive landscape by using low-water and drought-resistant grass, plants, shrubs, and trees. If maintained properly, climate-appropriate landscaping can use less than one-half the water of a traditional landscape.
- Provide only the water plants need.
Automatic landscape irrigation systems are a home’s biggest water user. To make sure you’re not overwatering, adjust your irrigation controller at least once a month to account for changes in the weather. Better yet, install a Water Sense labeled irrigation controller, which uses local weather and landscape conditions to water only when plants need it. Install a rain shutoff device, soil moisture sensor, or humidity sensor to further control irrigation.
31. Replace old clothes washers.
Washers are the second largest water user in your home. If your clothes washer is old, you should consider replacing it with an ENERGY STAR certified clothes washer. Most ENERGY STAR clothes washers use four times less energy than those manufactured before 1999. To save more water, look for a clothes washer with a low water factor. The lower the water factor, the less water the machine uses. Water factor is listed on the certified product list.
- Install rooftop rainwater filter and connect with tank.
Rainwater filter from small roof of 1200 sq. ft can save around 4500 litres of water at every rainfall. This is free, fresh water that would reduce load of equivalent volume of water on the utility or your own bore hole. Don’t leave any open rainwater pipe, water from roof is direct replacement of water from bore well or utility.
- Install recharge wells to raise groundwater level and avoid flooding.
Most urban habitats become flooded during rainy season. Install recharge wells at various low lying areas to capture and divert rainwater to our aquifer. The amount of damage that flood creates is in billions of rupees every year, such recharge wells will address such disasters effectively and economically.
Save water every day, keep scarcity away.
Vardhman Envirotech,
India’s Passionate Rainwater Company.