1a: My hometown is Souderton, PA. When I went to find out about the water system/route I reached out to my municipal building for help. However the receptionist was not sure about the details and said she would call me back in a day or so with the answer. I waited to hear back but have not. I tired calling when I got home from work and class today but they had already left. So I plan on tracking down the answer and uploading a post for this part/section tomorrow.

For now my best guess for how the water runs through my town is that we obtain in from a watershed, pump it into one of the water storage tanks that has the township name on it. From there it is released into pipes that run underground to the different pipes that lead to houses and from houses to sewage systems.

1b:

Face wash (2x)
Hand wash (20x)
Teeth brush (2x)
Water glasses (4x)
Shower (1x 20min)
Dishwashing (6x)

Total gallons used: 212.24gallons

That’s a scary number. I picked a day when I was working at Noodles and Co. to keep track of my water usage. It’s scary how much water I use.

1c: If I had to live on only 2gallons of water a day, I would make it work because it would be what I was used to. However since I don’t, it was quite an adjustment and I ended up failing this experiment. I’m not used to keeping track of my water usage and was surprised how quickly I ran out without even realizing it. I decided to skip brush my teeth and showering to save water to wash my hands and face because I can’t stand going through the day with a gross oily face. I tried to stay under 4 glasses of water but was unsuccessful because my throat was dry and I kept coughing. I had to go into work and ended up washing my hands and doing the dishes several times for 2hrs so that placed me over the 2gallon limit quite quickly, along with using water to wipe down the tables after customers were finished eating and to clean the counters. I also needed to use the restroom so that caused me to go over my 2gallons.

I think geography is important when it comes to water use because when you are used to having an endless supply of water you abuse it and it is very hard to wrangle it in to an appropriate usage amount. However in countries, like those in the middle east it is easier for them to maintain a decent water usage because their water is rationed so they don’t have a choice. They have to savor the amount they have and use it wisely.