Water Conservation Tips

Water is one of the basic needs of man. We need water to quench our thirst and too keep ourselves clean. But our water sources are slowly being contaminated with waste and drinking water, along with other commodities, is getting expensive.

What can we do to help save our environment and, at the same time, save our wallets? Here are a few very simple things you can do in order to conserve water.

Avoid Drips, Maintain Your Plumbing

Do you know that a dripping faucet wastes approximately 20 gallons of water a day? How about a leaking toilet? Can you imagine how many gallons of water it uses up in a month? Any idea? 90,000 gallons! During these times when prices of commodities shoot up everyday, you need to save what you can, and water is one of the many things you should conserve. You can do this by keeping your faucets, toilets and water pipes well-maintained. Proper maintenance of your plumbing equipment is the easiest and cheapest way that you can conserve water.

Watch Out for those Pipes

In order to conserve water, you must be vigilant. If you see broken pipes and open hydrants or encounter excessive waste, report them immediately to the authorities. Remind your family and friends, too, about conserving water. Seen a dripping faucet or leaking toilet when you visited their homes? Don't be shy and remind them.

Keep Water Sources Clean

It is important to keep water sources clean. In cities surrounding the Great Lakes, the water source is a closed loop system. This means that water you have already used up will come back. So if you have been flushing chemicals down the toilet and pouring chemicals down the drain, these will come back to you in diluted form in the water coming from the closed loop system.

Bring it to Your Lawn

Water conservation does not end in the bathroom and kitchen sink. Bring it to your lawn! Save water by minimizing evaporation evaporation. How do you do this? Water your plants during the coolest part of the day. You can even water your plants at night. You might also want to consider planting locally appropriate plants. Find plants that are hardy, especially those that do not require a lot of water. This method is called Xeriscaping, which is a highly recommended approach in the states of California and Arizona. But of course, you can practice xeriscaping in your area, too!

Harvest Rainwater and Greywater

Utilize rainwater by putting a rain barrel on your downspouts. You can use rainwater for irrigation and make it fun by finding rain cisterns that come in different shapes and sizes. On the other hand, you can reuse greywater, too! But what is greywater? It is water that has been used but still clean enough to be reused. An example of this is water from the kitchen sink, shower and clothes washers. There is a plumbing system called Aqus that you can use to recycle greywater. If you do not have Aqus, you can simply avoid putting used water down the drain if you still have some other use for it.

Remember, water is very essential to our daily living. The above-mentioned water conservation tips are very easy to remember and do to help save Mother Earth, our health and our budget. So make it a point to follow these simple water conservation tips.

From: http://knol.google.com/k/super-greenme/water-conservation-tips/22vp08zxim8sy/3#