The following story is inspired by the drought currently being experienced in Cape Town South Africa. Though this story may be fiction it could become a reality if people do not start to use water sparsely. Our current dam levels are at approximately 10% of usable water and each person is recommended to use only 100L of water. It is said that this is the worst drought experienced in centuries. It is believed that we only have enough water to last until August or September with current water usage.
We had been standing in the same line for hours, and with the large amount of people here you would think that we were waiting to enter a theatre or some show, but no this line was for something worse, much worse. My mother had sent me and my brother to go collect out monthly quota of water at one of the few water reserves in the country. We were close to the front and could see the collection spot, but the line was slow.
“You know the irony of standing in this line?” My brother askes.
“No, humour me.” I replied sarcastically.
“We’re in a water line. On a hot day and we need water to hydrate us while we wait in a line for water.”
“Never really thought of it that way.” I giggled.
After hours of standing still we finally made it to the front where we were met by a young man, who was one of many sitting behind laptops asking a survey of questions before someone could receive their water
“Last name please?” He asked.
“Smith.” I replied bluntly.
He began to type. His fingers ran over the keyboard with speed “Name of a parent or sibling.” He then said. Not looking up from the screen.
“Monica Smith.” I sighed. The survey process was an extremely long one, but a necessary one I suppose.
He once again started typing with a few clicks in-between.
“Pass code.”
“4 4 7 3 8 9” I replied slowly while he typed it in.
“There we go. You must be Lilly and Alex.” He smiled “ID’s please”
We handed him our ID’s, and thirdly examined them before handing them back.
He got up and walked to a storage room that sat behind them. It wasn’t long before he returned with two 5L bottles of water. He handed them to us over the counter, and crossed our names off the list. He then gave us a form that we each had to sign, declaring that the Smith family had received their water, along with a thumb print from us both.
The ride home was dull, everything that was once green and luscious, was now dead and dried out. Most of the fields were still black from resent fires. Most parts of the city were long abandon since a lot of people decided to leave the country when things started to get bad. Other parts were burnt to the ground, leaving many homeless. Many places were evacuated due to fire risks, leaving even more people homeless. We were lucky, we lived in a safe area and my dad was high up in government, securing out safety and a constant roof over our heads even if our area had to be evacuated.
It was scary to think just how much our lives have changed in a matter of a couple of years. No one seemed to take the drought seriously until it was too late. My family was no exception, we were to use to water being constantly available that we never realised how much water we had been using until they cut out all water in homes and made everyone get their water from one place. We quickly had to get use to 2.5L per person.
If you do not wish for this scenario become a reality and you are a South African resident, here are some water saving tips.
1)Although you may love your green grass and gorgeous flowers, try to refrain from watering your garden using dam water. Instead reuse your bath or laundry water in the garden. Not only will this keep your garden stunning but it will also mean that you did not let any water go to waste.
2)Try to reduce your water usage to 100L per person per day. Try to cut down on your coffee or tea. I know this sounds strange but that water could have been used for so many other things.
3)Though this sounds unhygienic to some I would suggest sharing bath water with family members. I don’t mean the whole family get in one bath. I mean one bath after the other and then once you are all done you can also use that water to mop the floors.
4)Try to shorten showers and switch off water when soaping up or washing hair and only turn it back on when rinsing off. You can also stand in a large tub while showering so that the tub can collect the water which you can then also use in the garden.
5)In my home we have also limited our flushes to once a day unless necessary. We have taken up the rule “If it’s yellow let it mellow. If it’s brown flush it down.” I know this sounds horrible but it saves a lot of water and since its winter people use the bathroom a lot more which means more flushes. You could also place a 2L plastic bottle full of water in the water tank of the toilet. This could save 7 300L a year if the first choice doesn’t sound too good to you.
6)When you wash dishes by hand, do not leave the water running to rinse dishes. And if you have double sinks, fill one with soppy water and the other with clean water to rinse in.
7)Install a system to pump grey water (from washing machines, basins, showers, and baths) to the garden.
If you are not a South African resident I would recommend learning to use water sparsely sooner rather than later.
Image Credit: wigflip.com/sreenbot
