Saving the drought, one bucket at a time!
We cannot think about summer anymore without a heatwave! Longer periods of extremely hot days occur faster and faster. This has extreme consequences for our local climate. Climate change is causing these extreme temperatures, yet the solution for local drought is. You guessed it so, LOCAL!
That said, I want to recognize the fact that eating one single piece of steak (200g) uses 3.600 liters of water! Which is equal to taking 66 times a 10 minute shower. We won't win the urgent battle against Global Warming by just showering less or shorter.
Yet we have to stress the importance of saving water in your house for the local drought & water shortage!
Here is a simplistic version of how a watercycle works
When raining, the water can either:
Infiltrate: This is the water that goes into the ground & this is the water we can acces
Evaporate: this is the water that evaporates back into the atmosphere (cannot be used)
Run-off: this is the water that runs off to rivers & drainage back into the ocean (cannot be used)
So what's the deal?
Surface Run-off
The increasing urbanization & it's amount of concrete covered surface prevents the water to inflitrate and forces it to run off. The dryer the ground, the less capacity for water to infiltrate so it will again run off. This is not available for us to use.
Evaporation
Because of longer periods of extreme heat, there will be more evaporation
This is not available to use
Infiltration
With increasing amount of heatwaves, the soil becomes dryer and loses capacity to asborb water. See it as when you forget to water your plants. When you do, the water runs quickly through it and comes out at the bottom, it did not get absorbed.
Same goes for heavy rainfall, most of the water will simply run-off cause it did not get the chance to infiltrate. Again: this is not available to use, it will pressure the local drainge system, causing floods and leaving materialistic damage
Only the water that infiltrates the soil can be used
The problem with longer periods of warm days, occurring faster after each other, the water cannot restore itself to full capacity.Every summer we start off with a lower soil waterstorage level.
When you open your tab & run water, you use clean soil water! The water that is most valuable and has a shortage. Once you let it run through the drain it goes to waste and cannot be used. So every single bucket of water you saved going to the drain helps the water storage.
Let's save valuable water
So this is a battle against local water shortage! When you need to use water, try to keep it valuable as long as possible!
1. Collect water from the shower
When you are letting water run until it is warm, collect it in a bucket
2. Put a bucket in the sink
this way you can catch all the water every time you open the tab or wait for hot water
3. Buy a rain-barrel
When you have a rain-barrel, you can put water from the two above in it so you have a larger storage. You can also collect water from your rainpipe!
With the water saved, you can water your plants or even support a local vegetable garden!
They will all contribute in the increased infiltration capacity of the soil! Meaning less run off.
Try touse less concretein the garden, leave more room for green! Trees decrease the amount of water that runs-off.
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