buckets - the water crisis

Funny how one's values change - my friend brought me a gift of a whole lot of buckets ...and I am so grateful. We joke on Facebook about the latest in colour co-ordinated bathroom decor, but this is the reality of the drought over the past few years, that has seen the dam levels in the Western Cape decline to unsustainable levels. We are limited to 87 litres of tap water per person per day, and I have discovered that each time I flush the toilet it uses 9 litres of water to fill the cistern. So while my husband has been away these past few weeks I have taken the lid off the cistern and turned off the municipal water supply to it. I pump the salty underground water into the pool, and take buckets of water from the pool to pour into the toilet cistern so that I don't use any potable water in the toilet. It means becoming organised, and carrying many buckets of water into the house from outside, but it is one of my small contributions to water saving. Carrying in buckets of water for flushing the toilet also makes one very conscious of every flush!

[julia]

Last summer my Sister was having to conserve water because of the draught and she was showering while standing in fish bin.. then this was used for waterin.g the garden etc.. needs must.. hope some rain comes for you soon.

[Islambad]

Oh you poor thing - you know that is terribly hard to imagine coming from a waterlogged country such as the UK!

[Margo]

You are well suited to the drought. I was brought up in drought times & quicly learnt-one bath a week One basin full of water all day(for8) to wash hands One clothes wash a week etc. We can survive if we have to!!

[narayani]

Oh Desi that is sounding really dreadful 🙁 We have never had restrictions that severe. Though I can never understand why we use drinking water to flush our toilets. If the shower or laundry water could be recycled into the cistern it would make so much more sense... I hope you get some rain soon! How's your water tank going?

[Caryn]

@narayani My cousin lives in California. During one drought 20 years ago, he built a holding tank for "grey water" which is the used water from showers, dishwashing, clothes washing, hand washing. The grey water was then pumped back to the toilets to be used for flushing. I think that drought lasted for over 5 years. There were children who had never seen water fall from the sky and the first time it rained some of them were frightened.

[narayani]

@meotzi the grey water tank is a brilliant idea. In my last house I had the shower and washing machine water go onto the garden. The story about the children is quite a shock, but when I think about it, so many children worldwide must be in that position.

[Desi]

@julzmaioro Thanks Julia. I don't think we will get any rain until next winter at the earliest as winter is our rainy season. So let's hope the drought breaks then.
@islambad Yes, I am sure it must be difficult to imagine when you have so much rain in the UK
@777margo Yes you are right, we can survive if we have to. We just have to adjust our habits and our norms
@narayani I am so grateful for the water tank - although I can't see the harvested rainwater lasting until the next rainy season to keep on watering my veg garden. I don't really want to use the underground water on the veg just in case it is contaminated with e-coli or something due all the settlements around us
@meotzi Thanks for your "story" Caryn. Gosh 5 years is a long time. I hope this drought doesn't continue that long! I can quite understand the children would be afraid of rain having never seen it before. We have a grey water tank, but it is pumping out onto the garden at the moment

[Deborah McGavock]

Wow. I've just been posting about Storm Ophelia and the seas in Wales where we were on holiday last week. We went expecting to get wet , it is the norm. Your picture really brought me up short and I apprieciate just how lucky we are. I hope the drought ends soon.