Water – the source of life
- Never put water down the drain when there may be another use for it such as watering a plant or garden, or cleaning.
- Repair dripping faucets by replacing washers. If your faucet is dripping at the rate of one drop per second, you can expect to waste 2,700 gallons per year which will add to the cost of water and sewer utilities, or strain your septic system.
- Take shorter showers. Replace your shower head with an ultra-low-flow version. Some units are available that allow you to cut off the flow without adjusting the water temperature knobs.
- Do not use running water to thaw meat or other frozen foods. Defrost food overnight in the refrigerator or by using the defrost setting on your microwave.
Reduce your use of plastic water bottles
The bottled water business is booming. In the U.S. alone, we use 1.5 million barrels of oil each year just to create plastic water bottles. We collectively use billions of plastic water bottles each day in our country and only about 12% are recycled. The rest end up in our landfills, or worse, littering our roads, rivers and waterways. In fact, every plastic water bottle ever produced is still in our environment today. So what’s the answer – reduce your use of bottled water and bring your own water from home in a reusable bottle.
Scared of tap water? Consider that municipal water supplies are checked diligently for safety while water bottlers operate with little to no oversight. There are also many great water filtration systems available today, priced to accommodate any budget, and a variety of quality, stylish water bottles. With additional concerns about the safety of plastics and potential leaching of toxic chemicals like bisphenol-A (BPA) into our beverages, we say “just say no” to plastic bottles.
Save money too ! A reusable water bottle is a one-time expense. If you replace just one plastic water bottle per day, you would save about $200 per year.
Join in the petition to provide safe water for Women of the World (if they get safe water so do children and men). http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/03/25-2
Advocate for clean water
Advocacy is a key part of the action needed to help more people across the globe gain access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. You can get involved with advocacy efforts in your hometown; simply by letting more of your neighbors know the facts about the global water and sanitation crisis. Or you can take action by telling your elected officials that you care about this issue. Please use this resource from Roll Call to locate your representatives http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/.
Please visit these websites to see what the latest advocacy needs are and to download advocacy materials. On these websites you will find fact sheets as well as sample letters to send to your representatives.
- http://www.nrdc.org/international/safewater.asp
- http://www.wsscc.org/
- http://www.lwr.org/advocacy/water/
- http://www.endwaterpoverty.org/
- Water Advocates fact sheets at http://www.wateradvocates.org/aglanceat.htm
