There is no segregation of water in India. Drinking water is used for washing clothes, gardening, cleaning cars, roads and the most important usage in huge and bulk by the housing sector. No policy for industrial water and the wastage continued in every field without anybody bothering about water.
There is no policy of restricting the usage of drinking water for multi-purpose requirements. It is a matter of great regret that we pay water tax and impurified water is supplied at doorstep which is then purified by various processes to obtain drinkable water. Despite the fact that water is supplied by government agencies, we talk big and hardly believe in doing minimum. Adjust your daily habits to save litres of clean fresh water every day.
While brushing your teeth, use a glass of water instead of a running tap for wetting the brush and rinsing. A running tap can waste about 16 litres of water each minute. When taking bath shower instead of a bath and limit your showers to a maximum of four minutes. For shaving use a cup, sink or container of warm water to clean the shaver in rather than a warm running tap. Never shave in the shower. Clearing dishes after the meal require more water and so scrape and compost your food waste instead of rinsing it off plates and dishes. At the time of washing dishes, rinse dishes in a bucket and use the water on the garden after wards. In dishwasher do not rinse dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.
Ensure you only do full loads of washing, if possible using cold water and adjusting water levels to suit the size of loads. Instead of waiting for the warm water to arrive try and capture the water that flows out of the shower or tap prior to it being the right temperature and put it on the garden. Fix dripping taps and toilets quickly. They can waste up to 13 litres of water a day.
Fresh water is the lifeblood of nature. Without it, we would not have clean air, food, drink and many aesthetic and recreational benefits. Therefore, we need to ensure we use water in a sustainable way – we need to share it with all life on the planet and respect and value this ‘life blood’. The consequences of doing otherwise can be seen in the spreading deserts across the world and the resulting drought and famine that can soon follow.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
