So I decided to track the water usage not where I live now, but at my fiance’s home in Indiana. His family has water that comes from a well in the backyard. It fills naturally through the rain water and through the soil. From that it travels into the spouts of the different faucets. After use, the water from the toilet is drained into a sewage pump container. Water that is used from other faucets in the home go through purification and is reused. It’s interesting that they use this kind of new technology. They paid a lot of money to get ahold of this new technology, but it has been well worth their investment. This has not only reduced their water footprint in our environment, it has also been cost effective for their home. It has been really interesting to see how it worked as well as how it has effected and reduced their overall water use. Because of one change in their home, they are now subconsciously more observant of the amount of water they are using.
Watching My Water
- One Shower
- One Teeth Brushing (I know I’m lazy)
- 2 Glasses of water (I know I’m dehydrated)
- 3 Toilet flushing (Again dehydrated)
For the day, I used about 62 Gallons of water.
So my 2 gallon day was a challenge. The main areas that I thought would be great to focus on was cooking and showering. I thought that just by turning off the water while I brush my teeth and in between washing my hands, I would make a difference. But as soon as I used the restroom twice, it ruined all of it. I also tried to cut down my water footprint by satueeing a lot of my food rather than boiling it, as well as baking my foods. This experiment measured just about the same to what my gallons were in part b. I believe that geography maters because it has to be a collective as well as individual action. It is a collective problem, because it affects everyone. But if we all don’t take both individual and collective action against it, we will not be able to make a big enough foot print. If not everyone takes action, there will not be enough help to change our overall footprint.
Hi Alisha, I’m Chloe. I found your post interesting because you seem to use a lot less water than I do, which in this case is a really good thing. As I read how you went about your challenge of using 2 gallons of water per day, I thought it was a really good idea to turn off your water in between washing your hands and brushing your teeth. Here is a link to my post! http://sites.psu.edu/geog30/2016/02/10/water-usage-4/
Hi Alisha. Here’s my blog entry: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/10/syed-amirul-water-tracking-usage/
I thought it was interesting to see a different, non-conventional water system as used by your fiancee’s family. It was a small collective effort by the family, and I want to believe that in the future majority of people could you a self-sustained system, especially in areas with limited water sources. Great initiative with trying out different styles of cooking, by the way! Toilet trips definitely uses a lot of water- says a lot about the modern level of hygiene nowadays. Great post!
Hi Alisha,
My name is Humna, here is a link to my answer: https://wp.me/p3RCAy-btp.
I found it interesting that you got to track water that comes from a well and the newest technology, whereas my apartment is pretty old. I ended up having less water use but that is probably because of the amount of time we used it for each activity. I also found it interesting that you give the flushing responsibility for going above the limit, while for me, it was the showering.