The City of Cape Town, and the Western Cape at large, is experiencing a drought of disastrous proportions. With dam levels at 36,8% as of the week of the 13th of November 2017, we are fast approaching the 10% mark, which is problematic, considering the fact that when the dams inevitably reach this mark, the remaining water will be, essentially, unusable. In an attempt to conserve as much water possible, the Western Cape Government has enforced level 5 water restrictions, which stipulate that “all water users are required to use no more than 87 litres of municipal drinking water per person per day in total irrespective of whether you are at home, work or elsewhere”.
As students, who have great capacity for activism and instigation of change, and as the future leaders of this phenomenal country, it is vital that play an instrumental role in the conservation of one of the earth’s most precious resources. Here are a few steps you can follow, either in your res or digs (or both!) that will ensure you cut down your daily water consumption.
1.Don’t use warm water to thaw frozen foods and milk.
We get it, you had 10 000 assignments due on one day, and adulting is proving to be somewhat trickier than originally expected, so you completely forgot to take that frozen meat out of the freezer before dinner. Instead of filling up a sink with warm water, try defrost your meat in the microwave. Or splurge on some Sticky Fingers. You can adult another day.
2. Use one sink of water for dishes per day.
It’s a busy Monday morning, and you need to make sure you’ve washed your dishes before that one really bossy roommate rats you out on the Whatsapp group. At the time it might seem like the most efficient thing to do, but rather don’t just turn on the tap and give your bowl a rinse. Instead, fill up the sink and leave it in for the day for everyone to use. Not only will this save a fair deal of water, but will also make for a much happier, cleaner living environment.
3. Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth or washing your hands.
You’ve probably heard this one over a million times, but you’d be surprised how many people simply forget something as effortless as this. Make a concerted effort to turn off the faucets when you aren’t actually using the water, and you could potentially save quite a bit of perfectly clean, usable water.
4. Okay, showering… This is where things get a bit more complicated.
But we’re intelligent young people, right? We can sacrifice a few extra minutes of shower time, right? Sure, we all enjoy a long, warm shower at the end of a long day, but by taking a few simple measures, you could conserve plenty of water for use in other areas of the house. Place a bucket underneath your shower head in order to collect the water you use while showering. In addition to this, you can turn off the water while you lather, and then turn it on again to rinse. The grey water collected from showering can be used to flush toilets and clean the floors. It can even be used in the washing machine, but I’ll tell you about this a little later.
5. Turn off your toilet cisterns.
You see that tap to the left or right of your toilet? You may not have known this, but if you turn it off, the water that would typically flow into your toilet cistern after flushing will no longer do so – saving plenty of pristine water. Use the grey water from your showers to flush the loo instead!
6. Collect rain water.
With rain this winter in the Cape having been scarce, it is vital that we take any opportunity to collect water whenever the heavens decide to open. Do not fear – there is no need to spend copious amounts of money on water harvesting systems or JoJo tanks. By simply placing buckets underneath your gutters, and decanting the contents of the full buckets into a larger container (such as a big black dustbin, cleaned, of course), you’d be surprised how much water you could conserve for later use. This water can be used to wash dishes, flush toilets, clean floors, and can also be used in your washing machine!
7. Use collected rain and greywater in your washing machine.
Most of us are all too familiar with those Speed Queen washing machines that have that lid that opens at the top. While Speed Queens are notorious for ruining your clothes, they actually lend themselves to water conservation! Place your clothes in the machine’s cavity, add washing powder, and then fill the machine with the greywater or rain water that you have collected in buckets. In doing this, you will be able to save half of the water a Speed Queen would typically use: the only fresh water the machine would use then is the water it requires to rinse your clothes!
8. Drink bottled water.
We know what you’re going to say: “But that’s so expensive!” Well that’s the thing, it doesn’t have to be! If you buy two 5l water bottles from Pick n Pay, it shouldn’t cost more than R40, and then you can fill them up at SAB in Newlands when you’ve finished them… for FREE!
By making a few simple changes to your water-usage habits, you would be playing a huge role in aiding our wonderful province, and city, through the drought stricken state that it is in. By following these steps, you could halve your recommended water usage for level 5 restrictions, going over-and-above what is prescribed by our government, and making an even greater impact.