Part 1-a:
My hometown is Doylestown PA, a busy little town about 45 miles northeast of Philadelphia. The water is supplied and managed by the Doylestown Borough Water Department. For most people in my area, this is how they get their water unless they use private well water. For me, since I live in a neighborhood, this is my family’s source of water. The Water Department service provides over 1 million gallons every day which is sold to households and businesses, and it is used for their daily necessities, such as tap water, toilets, showers, garden hoses, etc… Then, the water goes down drains into public sewers to be recirculated back into one of the Water Department’s water treatment plants, or is held in septic tanks to be collected. This system consists of over 46 miles of distribution mains, and the water is mostly obtained from 13 large well systems throughout the area that pump water from about 200 feet down. During peak times, the department has storage capacity for up to 1.75 million gallons of water in 5 storage tanks throughout the area. Reports of the water quality seem to normally determine it to be very safe and healthy water, although it is often very calcium rich. This goes along with what I normally see at home – my family had to get a water softener installed to reduce the calcium, which really helped with cleaning dishes and washing cars.
Part 1-b:
Back at home, this is what a normal day would look like for my water consumption, using water flow rates found on the websites provided:
| Type of Use: | Uses Per Day | Water Rate | Daily Usage (gallons) |
| Showers | 1 (20 minutes) | 3.8 gal/min | 76 |
| Toilet Flushes | 3 | 5 gallons per use | 15 |
| Sink Usage | 6 (.5 mins each) | 2 gal/min | 6 |
| Dish Wash | .5 | 10 gallons per use | 5 |
| Laundry Wash | .2 | 40 gallons per use | 8 |
| Total: | 110 |
Part 1-c:
Living on two gallons a day is obviously a huge challenge for someone used to living with the resources we have here. I made an attempt to reduce as much as I could, but it seems to be simply impossible without very much impacting my daily schedule and others around me. It seemed to be fairly easy to reduce the water use all around in every type. While this is great, this reduction in water use still comes nowhere near using just two gallons a day. The priority I set for water is for my personal health and to not impact others too much. I drank less than a gallon, which seemed to be enough for me. Other than that, I avoided using sinks unless absolutely necessary, and didn’t wash my clothes that day (which I only do once a week anyway). However I felt obliged to flush the toilet due to living in a dorm with other people who use the same bathroom. In the end, I think I failed at this experiment. Despite my efforts, I likely used far more than two gallons. While the goal to reduce my water to two gallons failed, the experiment succeeded at showing me that it is really easy to cut back a good amount without negatively impacting anything, such as taking shorter showers and not using the sinks too much. Geography certainly plays a huge part in how much water we have available and how it gets used. In most parts of America, there is little shortage of water supply due to how our systems are set up and the terrain we have. In places like Africa, however, where they have a much drier climate, less freshwater sources, and poor infrastructure, it becomes much more difficult and the water must be used very conservatively.
Though everyone likely failed at the experiment, it was a success in that everyone became more aware of their impact on water usage and thus was able to scale this to the local community as a whole. Infrastructure is likely the most overlooked aspect of a functioning community especially when it is operating as it “should” be. Whats astonishes me about this experiment is that even if everyone were to use the barest minimum of their water for tasks except showering, we would still be among the world’s leaders in water usage. Though there are many methods of shaving off the water used in showering such as aerated nodes, (put air bubble in water streams so it “feels” the same with less) it doesn’t address the issue of everyday showers. Mainly that showers are meant to use large amounts of water, and would be best if it could be reused (w/a filter of course) but the infrastructure isn’t built nor intended to accommodate such an approach. Lastly, here’s my blog
http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/02/13/module-4-9/
I was deployed to the horn of Africa in 2008. It was the driest place I have ever been. All the water we drank came from water bottles. We did not have access to potable water. The locals lived on very little water. It was the first time I had ever witnessed third world living conditions. They did not have the luxury of running water. It really puts it into perspective how fortunate Americans are to have the complex water distributions systems that we have.