Water, Water Everywhere?

Not quite everywhere.  Living in sunny Florida it does seem like we are surrounded by water; however I was reminded today how little freshwater is available.  Did you know that only 3% of the water on Earth is freshwater?  Today Georgia’s Governor, Sonny Perdue, requested President Bush to declare a major disaster area in much of Georgia due to the worst drought on record in the state.  This will once again fuel the water wars of Alabama, Georgia and Florida but what it should do is prompt us all to be more aware of our water usage. 

I remember when I was a little kid the big thing was to turn off the water when you brush your teeth.  In recent years the big thing has been installing low-flow showerheads and toilets.  Tonight as I sit here listening to the rain fall I am reminded how lucky I am to have all this water.  When I was visiting St. Croix this summer I first learned the term cistern and how everyone that lives there has a cistern for their primary water source; this forces them to use their water wisely.  In Florida, rain barrels are a quite popular way to conserve water (even though I’ve never actually seen them in anyone’s yards).  The idea is to collect the rain water as it falls from your roof and use it to water your plants or yard.  We actually tried this once with a trash can after we saw how much water poured off our roof with the afternoon rain shower.  The trash can overflowed after about 15 minutes; that’s a lot of water in a short period of time.  Maybe one of these days I’ll actually get a rain barrel and learn how to use it. 

Another way to save water, eat less meat.  Now I’m not a vegetarian, I tried it years ago when I was in college but couldn’t stick to it for more than a few months.  Back then I didn’t realize how big of an environmental impact eating meat was.  A diet of meat requires 4,000 gallons of water a day versus only 300 gallons of water for a vegetarian diet.  I ran across the PB&J Campaign while surfing the internet tonight and was intrigued by how much impact our diets make to the environment.  Just imagine how much you could change by just going meatless one day a week. 

What steps will you take to conserve water in your town?