My experiences with saving water
Saving Water
Sad to hear about the plight of farmers committing suicide in India's southern states and inspired by the widely publicized Save Water campaign, I decided to act and implement a few tips to save water
in my house. After all, there is a popular saying, "charity begins from home", I thought.
At a personal level, I made it a habit to close open taps, use water minimally while doing basic cleaning tasks and chores, and report water leakages. But this was not enough.
It was easy to identify our first goal: of reusing the RO water. It is a known fact that the RO system throws about 5-10 litres of waste water everyday, which can be used for other purposes besides drinking. So, we worked upon an idea to divert the waste RO water to a large tub placed outside the kitchen window. We used an an extra waste pipe for this purpose, which the RO service person provided at no extra cost. There was an initial resistance to this activity, as we had to keep open the kitchen window mesh had a hole in it and it had to be kept slightly open, due to the pipe. However, we continued this activity after some persuasion.
In this way, we could collect about 10 litres (5 litres each in the morning and evening) in a day, which was used for everyday cleaning tasks.
After a few months, we thought of spreading the goal of saving water to not only family members but also our domestic helpers. We observed the fact that our household maids, often did not minimize water usage. Usually they came from village areas, where they had to use water minimally, having to collect water from far off wells or other sources. However, once in the city, they did not think of conserving water.
It was a tough task to reduce water usage from this end. On my initial suggestion to why we should use less water, my maid stared at me with irritation. 'Nal bina khole bartan kaise dhulega', ("how can I wash the utensils without opening the tap") she said. She further disclosed to me that no one asked her to minimize water usage in any of the houses she worked. It gave me a sense of feeling as if I was depriving her of a basic right of using water as much she wanted.
Still, not to be intimidated, I tried to persuade her, trying to make her aware that ground water level is slowly receding. As we live in an area surrounded by multi-storeyed buildings, without any provision for rain harvesting, in some years, we might not see so much water. "We must understand the plight of those who might have to remain without water during summer months", I said. She was careful of saving water after that, when I was around, most of the times.
Not putting an end to our efforts, we tried collecting and reusing water from the air conditioning vents. The two ACs that operated in the house helped us collect around 10-15 litres of water, that was enough to wash clothes, mop the floor, and water the plants in summer time.
One fine summer day, later on, my children pointed out to me that water was dripping from the neighbors vent too, making the veranda wet. So we eventually asked our top floor residents neighbors to fit a waster water pipe in the AC vent. But it was then, that my attempts at saving water met with a heavy blow as our neighbors turned highly uncooperative at this moment.
Though the Auntie residing on top floor of our flat used to approach my mother for quick conversations every time some help was needed, her family shed off their responsibility of fitting a pipe for the water. 'Whosoever has a problem should pay for the task', she said, not willing to help in this initiative. My mother was quite astonished and angry at this behavior and spared no time in reporting this behavior to RWA officials.
After this event, our neighbors threw a fight with us and we are not on talking terms with us any more. They even tried to remove the pipe that the electrician fitted in the AC. The next day, my mother asked me to remove the bucket from all our AC vents and let the water fall down. "After all, all the people living upstairs feel it is their right to spill water wherever they like, so why not we", she said. She was somewhat right...but I resisted this move at first, with all my might.
But my mother stayed stern. In my mind I thought, "this is similar to a situation where my neighbor is doing wrong, so I shall also do wrong", but I did not dare to speak in front of my mother again.
At present, only RO water is being saved and reused.
In summer time, our efforts continued. However, when the rainy season arrived, and I felt it was not practical to continue efforts to save water (except from the RO system) this way, as there was water everywhere: tricking down all drains, on floors, on the veranda, in front of the house, from trees, and from pipes. I just could not continue with my efforts for saving water any more. 'You are just obsessed with water' my family members began saying.
An year later:
Top floor Auntie has again connected the pipe and water now gets collected in a bucket instead of on the floor.
People around me still see my attempts to save water, garbage segregation, plastic reuse, and other such so called eco-friendly activities as random activities that will not result in much change. But I feel that if each of us such can implement such steps, we can really do our bit to save our planet.
I also wondered whether all my attempts to save water are really worthwhile and if the following could be done:
These activities might sound very trivial, against our wider goal, but believe me, it brings an immense satisfaction to know that one is doing our little bit to save the planet.
Not to be boggled down with these disappointments, I will still continue doing my wee bit towards saving water, cleaner home and city, waste disposal, and eventually, to make our earth a better place to live.
Sad to hear about the plight of farmers committing suicide in India's southern states and inspired by the widely publicized Save Water campaign, I decided to act and implement a few tips to save water
in my house. After all, there is a popular saying, "charity begins from home", I thought.At a personal level, I made it a habit to close open taps, use water minimally while doing basic cleaning tasks and chores, and report water leakages. But this was not enough.
It was easy to identify our first goal: of reusing the RO water. It is a known fact that the RO system throws about 5-10 litres of waste water everyday, which can be used for other purposes besides drinking. So, we worked upon an idea to divert the waste RO water to a large tub placed outside the kitchen window. We used an an extra waste pipe for this purpose, which the RO service person provided at no extra cost. There was an initial resistance to this activity, as we had to keep open the kitchen window mesh had a hole in it and it had to be kept slightly open, due to the pipe. However, we continued this activity after some persuasion.
In this way, we could collect about 10 litres (5 litres each in the morning and evening) in a day, which was used for everyday cleaning tasks.After a few months, we thought of spreading the goal of saving water to not only family members but also our domestic helpers. We observed the fact that our household maids, often did not minimize water usage. Usually they came from village areas, where they had to use water minimally, having to collect water from far off wells or other sources. However, once in the city, they did not think of conserving water.
It was a tough task to reduce water usage from this end. On my initial suggestion to why we should use less water, my maid stared at me with irritation. 'Nal bina khole bartan kaise dhulega', ("how can I wash the utensils without opening the tap") she said. She further disclosed to me that no one asked her to minimize water usage in any of the houses she worked. It gave me a sense of feeling as if I was depriving her of a basic right of using water as much she wanted.
Still, not to be intimidated, I tried to persuade her, trying to make her aware that ground water level is slowly receding. As we live in an area surrounded by multi-storeyed buildings, without any provision for rain harvesting, in some years, we might not see so much water. "We must understand the plight of those who might have to remain without water during summer months", I said. She was careful of saving water after that, when I was around, most of the times.
Not putting an end to our efforts, we tried collecting and reusing water from the air conditioning vents. The two ACs that operated in the house helped us collect around 10-15 litres of water, that was enough to wash clothes, mop the floor, and water the plants in summer time.
One fine summer day, later on, my children pointed out to me that water was dripping from the neighbors vent too, making the veranda wet. So we eventually asked our top floor residents neighbors to fit a waster water pipe in the AC vent. But it was then, that my attempts at saving water met with a heavy blow as our neighbors turned highly uncooperative at this moment.
Though the Auntie residing on top floor of our flat used to approach my mother for quick conversations every time some help was needed, her family shed off their responsibility of fitting a pipe for the water. 'Whosoever has a problem should pay for the task', she said, not willing to help in this initiative. My mother was quite astonished and angry at this behavior and spared no time in reporting this behavior to RWA officials.
After this event, our neighbors threw a fight with us and we are not on talking terms with us any more. They even tried to remove the pipe that the electrician fitted in the AC. The next day, my mother asked me to remove the bucket from all our AC vents and let the water fall down. "After all, all the people living upstairs feel it is their right to spill water wherever they like, so why not we", she said. She was somewhat right...but I resisted this move at first, with all my might.
But my mother stayed stern. In my mind I thought, "this is similar to a situation where my neighbor is doing wrong, so I shall also do wrong", but I did not dare to speak in front of my mother again.
At present, only RO water is being saved and reused.
In summer time, our efforts continued. However, when the rainy season arrived, and I felt it was not practical to continue efforts to save water (except from the RO system) this way, as there was water everywhere: tricking down all drains, on floors, on the veranda, in front of the house, from trees, and from pipes. I just could not continue with my efforts for saving water any more. 'You are just obsessed with water' my family members began saying.
Top floor Auntie has again connected the pipe and water now gets collected in a bucket instead of on the floor.
People around me still see my attempts to save water, garbage segregation, plastic reuse, and other such so called eco-friendly activities as random activities that will not result in much change. But I feel that if each of us such can implement such steps, we can really do our bit to save our planet.
I also wondered whether all my attempts to save water are really worthwhile and if the following could be done:
- Whether if we reduce water consumption, the saved water can be really diverted to the needy areas.
- Whether it could be possible to store and redirect flood water to drought hit areas through canals and waterways.
- Quick reporting of water pipe leakages is another important initiative, citizens can play a part here.
- Water harvesting facilities should be adopted in areas having multi-storied buildings (such as Delhi-NCR) and those reporting water crisis in summer months. There are civic laws that can be framed, but they are upon the RWA to be implemented, a body that remains passive, unless residents take up initiative.
- If we can have water filling stations, similar to Petroleum stations, in drought hit areas.
- Whether water from the sea could be filtered for resolving the situation in drought hit districts.
These activities might sound very trivial, against our wider goal, but believe me, it brings an immense satisfaction to know that one is doing our little bit to save the planet.
Not to be boggled down with these disappointments, I will still continue doing my wee bit towards saving water, cleaner home and city, waste disposal, and eventually, to make our earth a better place to live.
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