How much water do you (mis)use?

[Locutus]

I'm not an naive idealist but some things make me wonder. We are so resource-rich in Canada that we take a lot of things for granted. Fresh water is one of them.

I imagine if we were to tell someone in a less fortunate country that we pour drinking water into pools, toilets, golf courses and our own grassed yards (that produce nothing of any real consequence other than looking nice), bathtubs and such, they might wonder about us. It's almost ridiculous when you think about watering grass with drinking water.

These are habits we can change or alter ourselves, never mind agriculture and industry for the moment even though they consume the vast majority of water. Check for yourself. Two sites here, one is American and the other Canadian (requires one time email sign-up). They both calculate an estimate of your fresh water usage based on a few questions. Have a go if you like.

Government of Canada:

http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/reseau/watercalculator/login_e.html


U.S. :

http://ans.engr.wisc.edu/eic/WaterForm.html



Mine is:

Your daily average water usage: 241L
Your province's daily average: 285L
Canadian national daily average: 335L

 

[hermanntrude]

On the reserve I lived on for a while, sometimes the water would be shut off for a day for maintainence. It sure made you think twice about taking water for granted.

 

[#juan]

In Nanaimo we are on a water meter so we are fairly careful. I'd have to find a bill to see how many litres we use. I'll look it up.

 

[karrie]

I used to have a cistern on the acreage. I have to admit, I waste more water now. On the acreage, we were very careful. Too careful by some people's standards. my kids are much too old to still be forgetting to flush the loo, but, because we were scrimping water at the acreage, they just never flushed because they were only supposed to flush for #2. It didn't become a habit.

We never watered our lawns either on the acreage. But here, the neighbors get annoyed if you let it die.

 

[Twila]

I imagine if we were to tell someone in a less fortunate country that we pour drinking water into pools, toilets, golf courses and our own grassed yards (that produce nothing of any real consequence other than looking nice), bathtubs and such, they might wonder about us. It's almost ridiculous when you think about watering grass with drinking water.

Imagine if those same people were shown North American TV where they watched us waste food too. When I see that on tv I wonder what they'd think of us. AFHV has competitions all the time...funny ways to break eggs, poor milk/juice, etc. And you always see such immense amounts of waste!

 

[eh1eh]

I used to have a cistern on the acreage. I have to admit, I waste more water now. On the acreage, we were very careful. Too careful by some people's standards. my kids are much too old to still be forgetting to flush the loo, but, because we were scrimping water at the acreage, they just never flushed because they were only supposed to flush for #2. It didn't become a habit.

We never watered our lawns either on the acreage. But here, the neighbors get annoyed if you let it die.

Well the neighbours have their heads up their bums. I live on a bit of a snooty street, lawn care companies and gardeners are a regular sight. My lawn is cared for naturaly. I do put some weed killer on to avoid a mess and I don't water at all. This has given me a bit raggety but very robust lawn. My neighbour with the weed man an irrigation had a lawn that was lack lusture. I have cut my lawn 4 times this year. 30 is normal. In previous years I have spread mushroom farm compost on my lawn.

Really in the end. Some years the dudes with the gardeners had a nice green lawn and my was a wee bit scruffy. This year my lawn did not completely die , but gardener dude grasss fried.

Go figure.

 

[#juan]

In a three month period, according to the water bill, we used 51 cubic metres or 11,220 gallons. It sounds like a lot of water......I'm a bit shocked but I don't know what the average use is.

 

[eh1eh]

That's 1886 gal/mo, based on two people in your home. I'm going to look up mine. :-?

 

[#juan]

That's 1886 gal/mo, based on two people in your home. I'm going to look up mine. :-?

I make that 3740 gallons per month or roughly a hundred and twenty gallons per day.

 

[eh1eh]

Now that I have looked. I remeber I haven't had a meter readin in over a year. We have to read our own meters here ,(Durham Region, Ontario ), and they have a 'Tele-read' system where you read your meter and then 'phone in' to their 'convenient' system. Umteen phone button pushes later you think you 'may have entered your reading. Pain. I'm sure they'll get with the web soon.

So bottom line, I have no idea how much water I used last year. Bright side, we got a new water meter so they took a 'final' on that so next bill should be real.

 

[Tonington]

Or 51,000 litres in 3 months, which works out to roughly 567 litres a day. National average is around 330 or so.

 

[eh1eh]

Or 51,000 litres in 3 months, which works out to roughly 567 litres a day. National average is around 330 or so.

124.73 imp gal. = 567l.

 

[I think not]

17,000 Gallons a year.

 

[Locutus]

I forgot how many Americans post here too. I'm certain there is just as much waste down there as there is here. I've seen programs on how hard Las Vegas works to conserve water though (casinos, golf courses etc). Impressive.

 

[#juan]

Or 51,000 litres in 3 months, which works out to roughly 567 litres a day. National average is around 330 or so.

That national average sounds low. We do laundry three times a week. We run the dishwasher once a day. We shower every morning. We only water the flower beds.....not the lawns.

 

[Tonington]

That national average sounds low. We do laundry three times a week. We run the dishwasher once a day. We shower every morning. We only water the flower beds.....not the lawns.

Well, not everyone lives in single dwelling residents. My apartment building doesn't water the lawn at all. Of course we get plenty of rain in Nova Scotia anyways. Mine would be much lower if the apartment building was new and used low flow, high efficiency water fixtures. As it is I come in just below the average, at 331 l/day. I could lower it if I didn't do laundry as much, but my clothes that get sweaty from biking and working out don't smell very nice if I leave them....

 

[eh1eh]

Note: I have low flow toilets and need to flush 2-3 times per poopy. Savings are only on pee pee. I do have a low flow shower head and it's fine.

 

[triedit]

Note: I have low flow toilets and need to flush 2-3 times per poopy. Savings are only on pee pee. I do have a low flow shower head and it's fine.

Hee Hee...you said poopy

 

[Dreadful Nonsense]

I live in apartments ...i flush for no reason to get fresh water flowing through the system....i leave all taps on when leaving any public washroom to increase the flow of fresh water through the system....i do everything in my power to accomplish this with a vengance....people give me dirty looks for walking into a washroom and just turning on the taps...i give em a crazee look and they leave it on...
We need to flush the sytem people...please help me in my quest for free flowing water through our sewers

i swear to you this is not for effect...this one is true