"Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink"
This quote is from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, published originally in 1857. I imagine there are a few people in Gloucestershire and other places in the UK who can empathise with the ancient mariner and his lament. Fair enough, you might say, they are in a dreadful plight, flooded at home with little or no clean water in the immediate future. Strange then, that I was rather angry at a headline on the BBC website "How to cope without running water". Angry? Yes. We live in a privileged society where we take clean water for granted. We even use it to water the garden, clean the car, bathe a muddy dog. Yet there are millions of people in this world who live their entire lives wishing for a cup of uncontaminated water. It has been said that if you could cure Aids in Africa by giving everyone on that continent a cup of clean water you wouldn't be able to do so, not because water lacks the curative properties but, because there is not that volume of clean water.
What has this to do with a green lifestyle? To me, it's a state of mind. One that says I shouldn't be wasting something here that is infinitely more scarce in another part of the world. If we were more careful with our use of water here, fewer resources would be used for purification, for pumping, for all those activities related to getting that water to run out of the tap. Fewer resources used in the UK ultimately means that they are available for use elsewhere.
Is it not obscene that in 2006 the UK market for bottled water was 2.28 billion litres? When there is normally perfectly good water in the tap. Why do we use that same clean water to flush the toilet? When are houses going to be built with re-use of 'grey water' as standard? We live very comfortably when all is said and done. When you brush your teeth tonight, why not turn the tap off while you're brushing? You can use a single glass of water for the task instead of the 15 litres a minute going down the plughole. However indirectly, small changes here will have an impact further afield eventually. Remember that stone thrown into the pond and how far the ripples spread.
I saw an item on a forum the other day, where someone had made their own toilet cistern on the outside of the house, nicely disguised. It collected rainwater diverted from the house gutters, and then diverted into the cistern inside the house. If the outside cistern was full, the water continued down the drainpipe and into a water butt. I thought it was a very good idea.
The thing I hate the most is when people fill a 3 litre kettle, when they only want a cup of tea. Why can't they just put a cupful of water in the kettle instead? Grrrr!
I saw an item on a forum the other day, where someone had made their own toilet cistern on the outside of the house, nicely disguised. It collected rainwater diverted from the house gutters, and then diverted into the cistern inside the house. If the outside cistern was full, the water continued down the drainpipe and into a water butt. I thought it was a very good idea.
The thing I hate the most is when people fill a 3 litre kettle, when they only want a cup of tea. Why can't they just put a cupful of water in the kettle instead? Grrrr!
Soon it won't be just water that's in short supply
Croydon council are trying to ban the fruit and vegetable stall at East Croydon station run by 2 Kurdish guys
Please help
Google 'Croydon fruit and veg' to find BBC action network campaign and a petition to save the fruit and vegetable stall.
Soon it won't be just water that's in short supply
Croydon council are trying to ban the fruit and vegetable stall at East Croydon station run by 2 Kurdish guys
Please help
Google 'Croydon fruit and veg' to find BBC action network campaign and a petition to save the fruit and vegetable stall.
